BURKINA FASO

Burkina Faso is a unitary state with a presidential system and a single multi-party chamber (National Assembly). In October 2014, the country experienced a popular uprising that led to the fall of former president Blaise Compaoré after 27 years in power. A transition one year later saw presidential, legislative and municipal elections held between November 2015 and May 2016. On 22 November 2020, President Rock Marc Christian Kaboré was re-elected for a second and final five-year term and the 127-member parliament was renewed for the same period. The next local elections, due to take place in May 2021, were postponed to 2022 and the mandate of local elected officials extended accordingly. Following the events of 24 January 2022 that led to President Kaboré being removed from power, the councils of the local and regional authorities (LRAs) were dissolved on 2 February 2022 by the new authorities.

Decentralisation is enshrined in the Constitution of June 1991 as a form of subnational government in Burkina Faso. The decentralisation process has so far gone through three cycles:

The first cycle (from 1993 to 2003) was characterised by the creation of the National Decentralisation Commission (Commission nationale de la décentralisation), the adoption in 1993 of the five decentralisation laws, the adoption in 1998 of the decentralisation guidelines, and the organisation of municipal elections in 1995 and 2000, which led to the creation of deliberative bodies in 33 full-function communes and then in 49 urban communes.

The second cycle (from 2004 to 2015) began with the adoption of the General Code of LRAs (GCLRA or Code général des collectivités territoriales) (Law 055/2004/AN of 21 December 2004), which recognises that LRAs “have the right to administer themselves freely and manage their own affairs with a view to promoting development at the grassroots level and strengthening governance” (Article 2 of the GCLRA). This cycle was also characterised by the full communalisation of the territory (2006), the adoption of the Strategic Framework for the Implementation of Decentralisation (Cadre stratégique de mise en œuvre de la décentralisation), the adoption in 2012 of a National Strategy for Strengthening the Capacities of Decentralisation Actors (Stratégie nationale de renforcement des capacités des acteurs de la décentralisation), and the creation of the National Conference on Decentralisation (Conférence nationale de la décentralisation).

The third and final cycle began with the adoption, on 7 March 2018, of new reference frameworks including the Prospective Vision of Decentralisation in Burkina Faso until 2040 (Vision prospective de la décentralisation à l'horizon 2040), the National Decentralisation Policy in Burkina Faso (Politique nationale de décentralisation au Burkina Faso) and the Ten-Year Decentralisation Strategy 2017-2026 (Stratégie décennale de la décentralisation 2017-2026) for the implementation of the National Decentralisation Policy (Politique nationale de Décentralisation), as well as its five-year action plan. The latter expired in 2021 and was to be replaced by a new plan covering the period 2022 – 2026. Current political circumstances in the country did not allow for its adoption even though the draft was ready to go to the Council of Ministers.

On the basis of these new reference frameworks, the Ministry of Territorial Administration, Decentralisation and Security (responsible for the administrative supervision of the LRAs and whose name has changed 3 times between 2018 and 2022) and the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Planning (which ensures financial oversight), are working to accelerate the decentralisation process. In particular, direct universal suffrage is to be introduced for the election of the presidents of LRA councils. A revision of the GCLRA is underway to reflect the new vision of decentralisation.

A network of parliamentarians for decentralisation and local development has been set up within the National Assembly. It aims to facilitate the drafting and adoption of laws on decentralisation and monitor their implementation. This network was in operation until the end of the 7^th parliamentary term in December 2020. With the support of technical partners such as the World Bank, this network advocated for the strengthening of decentralisation and actively participated in the discussions on the reforms aimed at consolidating the process. With the beginning of the 8^th parliamentary term in January 2021, the process of reactivating the network was begun and then interrupted by the political events of late January 2022.

TERRITORIAL ORGANISATION
MUNICIPAL LEVEL	INTERMEDIATE LEVEL	REGIONAL LEVEL	TOTAL NUMBER OF SNGs (2020)
communes		regions
Average municipal size: 59 554 inhab.
351		13	364

Name and number of sub-communal entities:

19 Arrondissements (12 in Ouagadougou and 7 in Bobo-Dioulasso)

OVERALL DESCRIPTION: Law 055/2004/AN of 21 December 2004 on the General Code of LRAs (GCLRA) defines two levels of subnational government: the region and the commune (rural and urban). It states that the State is represented across the country by the heads of the administrative constituencies. There are three levels of these deconcentrated entities: (i) the department (numbering 351), with the same geographical boundaries as the commune and headed by a prefect, (ii) the province (45), headed by a high commissioner, is a grouping of three to 15 departments, and (iii) the region (numbering the same as the decentralised regions), headed by a governor and comprising one to six provinces. The heads of the administrative constituencies represent the State, coordinate the decentralised services of the ministries and exercise (administrative and financial) control over the LRAs. In this capacity, they have the power of approval and prior authorisation and control of the legality of the acts of the council and the president of the council of the LRAs and play a role in supporting and advising the LRAs in the application of the legal texts in force.

REGIONAL LEVEL: The country’s 13 regions are both administrative constituencies and subnational governments. Each regional authority is governed by a regional council headed by a president. The presidents of the regional councils are elected by the councillors (indirect suffrage). According to the GCLRA, regions are intended to be an economic area and a framework for development planning and co-ordination. The Centre and Hauts-Bassins regions account for 14% and 10% of the total population respectively, compared to 4.1% and 4.3% for the Cascades and Sud-ouest regions.

MUNICIPAL LEVEL: The commune is the basic territorial division. It is made up of sectors and/or villages. Burkina Faso has 351 communes, 49 of which are urban (with at least 25 000 inhabitants and economic activities generating own-source revenues of at least CFAF 25 million) and 302 rural (with at least 5 000 inhabitants and own-source revenues of at least CFAF 5 million). Urban communes may be granted special status if they meet the population (at least 400 000 inhabitants) and own-source revenues (CFAF 1 billion) criteria. This is the case for the two main cities of the country: Ouagadougou, the political capital, and Bobo-Dioulasso, the economic capital, which are subdivided into arrondissements (12 in Ouagadougou and seven in Bobo-Dioulasso). Each commune is run by a municipal council headed by a mayor elected by indirect suffrage by the councillors, who are themselves elected by universal suffrage. The two communes with special status are home to 17% of the population, while 63% of the population is distributed across the 302 rural communes.

HORIZONTAL COOPERATION: The GCLRA foresees the possibility of LRAs organising themselves into an agreement, a twinning arrangement or communities of communes. To date, three communities of communes are in place (in the provinces of Bam and Oubritenga and Greater Ouaga) and two are at the draft stage (Hauts-Bassins and Eastern regions). The largest and most symbolic is the community of communes of Greater Ouaga, which consists of the communes surrounding the capital. It is a geographical area comprising one commune with special status (Ouagadougou) and seven peripheral rural communes (Komki-Ipala, Komsilga, Koubri, Loumbila, Pabré, Saaba and Tanghin-Dassou). Its master plan was adopted by the Council of Ministers on 23 September 2020. It aims to pool resources in various areas, including waste management, storm water drainage and an urban mobility project. The community of communes of the province of Bam was created in 2012 and aims to manage decentralised co-operation with the department of Seine-Maritime in France. The community of communes of the province of Oubritenga was approved on 30 March 2014. Its objectives are to promote culture and tourism, access to water and sanitation. In addition, several twinning arrangements have been established with LRAs in other countries but also between LRAs within the country.

In Burkina Faso, 11 blocks of powers have been transferred to the communes and 10 to the regions. According to the regulations, these powers are exercised on an exclusive basis, with the exception of the preparation of regional plans for the planning and sustainable development of the country, which are exercised concurrently by the State and the regions. The transfer was implemented in three phases:

The first phase (from 2006 to 2008) saw the transfer of three blocks of powers to the urban communes: (i) pre-school, primary education and literacy; (ii) health; (iii) culture, youth, sports and leisure.

The second phase (from 2009 to 2013) saw the transfer of four blocks of powers to all communes, urban and rural: the first three blocks as well as drinking water supply and sanitation.

The third phase (from 2014) led to the transfer by decree of the blocks of powers initially provided for by the GCLRA to all local and regional authorities.

Despite the adoption of several decrees on the terms of the transfer of powers and revenues since 2009, the process of implementing the transfers remains incomplete overall. Implementation is slow and the relevant sectoral administrations are reluctant both to develop the relevant regulations and to enforce them.

Main responsibility sectors and sub-sectors
SECTORS AND SUB-SECTORS	Regional level	Municipal level
1. General public administration	Public buildings and facilities	Administrative services (weddings, births, deaths, etc.) Public buildings and facilities
2. Public order and safety	Civil protection and fire-fighting	Municipal police, communal signage; Civil protection and fire-fighting
3. Economic development and transport	Developing regional development plan Regional economic development; Creating, developing and managing regional fair areas; Organising regional fairs; Building and managing regional slaughterhouses; Regional tourism and artisanal crafts; Building and maintaining rural roads; Promoting public transport in the region	Developing a communal development plan; Creating, developing and managing markets; Building and managing slaughterhouses and slaughter areas; Communal roads, public parks, communal transport, local tourism
4. Environmental protection	Promoting environmental protection, natural resource management and sustainable development; Nature conservation, soil and groundwater protection, climate protection, sanitation, etc.	Protecting the environment, managing natural resources and sustainable development; Parks and green spaces, waste management, street cleaning
5. Land, housing and public services	Developing and adopting a regional plan for land use and sustainable development (SRADDT or schéma régional d'aménagement et de développement durable du territoire)	Construction/renovation; Housing developments; Drinking water supply, street lighting, urban planning
6. Health	Participating in the building and management of basic health facilities; Building and managing intermediate health facilities; Valuing traditional pharmacopoeia	Primary health care, (health centres), preventive health; Establishing and managing cemeteries; Establishing and managing funeral services
7. Culture and leisure	Building and managing regional cultural, tourism, youth, sports and leisure facilities; Regional museums, cultural heritage; Regional archives	Building and managing communal cultural, tourism, youth, sports and leisure facilities; communal museum
8. Education	Involvement in the development of pre-school, primary, post-primary and secondary education; Involvement in the development of higher education (universities and colleges); Promoting vocational training	Developing pre-school education, primary education, literacy, post-primary and secondary education (college); Promoting employment, vocational training and non-formal education
9. Social welfare	Protecting and promoting human and civil rights; Social advancement of individuals and groups; Organising and managing relief for vulnerable and disaster-affected groups	Social protection of children and young people; Organising and managing relief for vulnerable and disaster-affected groups

Scope of fiscal data: Communes and regions, except for the communes Léo and Boussé (which represent less than 1% of total local budgets), due to a crisis in the councils.

SCN 1993

Availability of fiscal data: Low

Quality/reliability of fiscal data: Low

GENERAL INTRODUCTION: The legal framework for local finance in Burkina Faso is organised by laws and regulations that essentially implement the provisions of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) directives. This corpus includes: (i) Law 014-2014/AN of 9 May 2014 on the determination of the revenues and spending of the LRAs, (ii) Law 039-2016/AN of 2 December 2016 on the general regulation of public procurement, (iii) Law 03-2017/AN of 13 January 2017 on the status of the civil service of local and regional authorities, (iv) Decree 2019-0621/PRES/PM/MINEFID/MATDC of 14 June 2019 on the budgetary nomenclature of LRAs (v) Decree 2006-204/PRES/PM/MFB of 15 May 2006 on the financial and accounting system for LRAs, which will be replaced in 2023 by Decree 2019-0575/PRES/PM/MINEFID/MATDC of 5 June 2019, which incorporates WAEMU directives; and (vi) the LRA budget circular.

Following the adoption of the legal texts of the third cycle of decentralisation in 2018, the new reference frameworks provide for the creation of a unified mechanism for channelling resources from technical and financial partners to LRAs, the enactment of a law on the financial planning of State transfers, and the availability of new sources of funding for the LRAs (public-private partnerships, loans and financial markets, mobilisation of the diaspora). These texts also provide for the broadening of the tax base and shared taxation, the introduction of ex-post control, as well as the reform of public procurement regulations. In addition, a restructuring of the Permanent Fund for LRA Development (PFLRAD or Fonds permanent de développement des collectivités territoriales) has been started in order to increase and expand its financing capacity. This restructuring led to the creation of the National Agency for Support to the Development of Local and Regional Authorities (SDLRA or Agence nationale d'Appui au Développement des Collectivités Territoriales) by Decree 2020-0927/PRES/PM/MINEFID/MATDC of 17 November 2020, followed by the establishment of a window for technical assistance and another for loans and guarantees. A draft financial programming law has been prepared and is ready to be presented to the Council of Ministers.

Several communes are trying to make budget information public by drawing up citizen budgets and organising public accountability exercises with the support of civil society and non-governmental organisations, including the Budget Information, Training and Study Centre (CIFOEB or Centre d'information de formation et d'études sur le budget) and Citizenship Lab (Labo Citoyenneté).

Subnational government expenditure by economic classification
2020	Dollars PPP / inhabitant	% GDP	% general government	% subnational government
Total spending	33	1.4%	5.8%	100.0%
Current spending	16	0.7%	4.0%	49.0%
Staff spending	4	0.2%	1.8%	11.0%
Intermediate consumption	11	0.5%	28.3%	33.7%
Social spending	0.01	0.0%	7.3%	0.02%
Subsidies and current transfers	1	0.03%	0.8%	2.4%
Financial charges (including interest)	0.3	0.01%	0.9%	0.9%
Other current spending	0.3	0.01%	1.0%	0.9%
Capital spending	17	0.7%	10.2%	51.0%
Capital transfers	-	-	-	-
Direct investment (or GFCF)	17	0.7%	11.2%	51.0%

EXPENDITURE: Between 2011 and 2020, total LRA spending has increased by a factor of 2.7 from CFAF 53.9 billion (USD 41.6 million PPP) in 2011 to CFAF 147.7 billion (USD 703.8 million PPP) in 2020, an average growth rate of 10.6% per year. This strong increase is due to several factors, including: (i) the extension and increase in resources transferred to cover transferred competences from 2014, (ii) the operationalisation of the local development mining fund from 2019, (iii) the implementation of new projects directly financing the LRAs and (iv) the increase in own-source revenues and the setting up of new local taxes.

In 2020, total LRA spending represents 1.4% of GDP and 5.8% of public spending excluding social welfare spending. It is mainly accounted for by the municipalities, which represent 94% of total spending, compared to 6% for the regions. The average expenditure per capita is USD 33 PPP.

LRA staff expenses have also risen sharply, by 55.8% in 4 years, from CFAF 8.9 billion (USD 41.4 million PPP) in 2016 to CFAF 16.3 billion (USD 75 million PPP) in 2020. The total workforce of the territorial civil service comprises almost 7 000 people, 78.4% of whom are men. To date, the salaries of staff working in areas of responsibility where the necessary resources have not been transferred are still paid from the State budget.

Current spending is dominated by intermediate consumption, which accounts for 33.7% of spending, followed by staff costs, which account for 11.0%.

DIRECT INVESTMENT: LRA spending is marked by the strong prevalence of capital spending (51.0%) compared to the world average. The regions devote 70.1% of their revenues to capital investment, compared to 43.5% for the communes.

Some experiments with public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been launched by some communes. The project of the new bus station of Koudougou carried out with the support of the Swiss Cooperation began in 2005 with the model of conceding space within the station to the private sector for investment in construction and management. For this purpose, the city council oversees the Autonomous Management Board for Market Infrastructures (RAGIM or Régie Autonome de Gestion des Infrastructures Marchandes), a commercial public institution, for the establishment and management of concession contracts. In 2019, the mayor's office of arrondissement 5 of the city of Bobo-Dioulasso began the process of building a market, which is currently ongoing, with the support of the French Development Agency (AFD or Agence Française de Développement) and in collaboration with local merchants. The report of the PPP feasibility study was adopted by a deliberation of the arrondissement council and a notice of preliminary qualification was published in the Journal of Public Contracts (Revue des marchés publics) 2904 of Wednesday 19 August 2020.

Subnational government expenditure by functional classification
2020	Dollars PPP / inhabitant	% GDP	% general government	% subnational government
Total spending by economic function	33	1.4%	100.0%	100.0%
1. General public services (administration)	7	0.3%	2.2%	21.0%
2. Defence	-	-	-	-
3. Public order and safety	0.3	0.01%	3.4%	0.9%
4. Economic affairs/transport	19	0.8%	13.3%	57.2%
5. Environmental protection	0.04	0.0%	1.0%	0.1%
6. Housing and community amenities	-	-	-	-
7. Health	0.5	0.02%	0.9%	1.4%
8. Recreation, culture and religion	0.1	0.0%	3.9%	0.2%
9. Education	6	0.3%	15.7%	18.9%
10. Social welfare	0.1	0.01%	5.7%	0.4%

There are shortcomings in the functional classification of LRA spending, as LRAs do not produce budgets by functional classification. The mismatch between local and regional authority budget categories and the functional classification leads to the inclusion of many aggregate spending items in the economic affairs category. This partly explains the dominance of this category, which accounts for 57.2% of local authority spending. The second most important category is general government services. It accounts for 21.0% of total local spending in 2020. The education sector is the third largest spending category at 18.9%.

Subnational government revenue by category
2020	Dollars PPP / inhabitant	% GDP	% general government	% subnational government
Total revenue	38	1.7%	8.9%	100.0%
Tax revenue	8	0.3%	2.1%	19.3%
Grants and subsidies	10	0.4%	-	25.6%
Tariffs and fees	1	0.1%	-	3.1%
Income from assets	-	-	-	-
Other revenue	20	0.9%	-	52.0%

OVERALL DESCRIPTION: The legal framework for LRA revenues is regulated by the following legal texts: (i) Law 058-2017/AN of 20 December 2017 on the General Tax Code; (ii) Law 036-2015/CNT of 26 June 2015 on the Mining Code; (iii) Law 014-2006 of 9 May 2006; (iv) Decree 2006-204/PRES/PM/MFB of 15 May 2006; (v) Decree 2007-287/PRES/PM/MFB/MATD setting out the terms for distributing taxes and duties between the communes and regions.

In 2020, total LRA revenues amounted to CFAF 171.6 billion (USD 790.5 million PPP), or USD 38 per capita, representing 1.7% of GDP and 8.9% of government revenues, excluding social security institutions. They have increased significantly and steadily (by about 16% per year on average) over the decade. The increase was particularly driven by the growth of tax revenues. The distribution of revenues among the LRAs is 91.6% for the communes and 8.4% for the regions. Revenues consist of three main sources of income: “other revenues” with USD 20 PPP per capita or 52.0% of revenues; grants and subsidies with USD 10 PPP per capita or 25.6% of total revenues and tax revenues with USD 8 PPP per capita, equivalent to 19.3% of LRA revenues.

In terms of revenue collected by region, the Centre region accounts for 20.3% of the total, followed by the Boucle de Mouhoun with 9.7% and the Sahel with 8.9%. At the opposite pole, the Centre-Sud, Cascades and Plateau Central regions represent 4.1%, 3.8% and 3.5% respectively. The 2 urban communes with special status, Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso, together account for 20.7% of total revenue and 22.4% of total spending, while the 302 rural communes account for 55% of revenue and 54% of spending.

TAX REVENUE: The local taxes and levies instituted by the General Tax Code are collected by the State’s tax services for the benefit of the communes. These include the business tax, the tax on the use of property, the micro-enterprises contribution (CME or contribution des micro-entreprises), the tax on weapons, the residence tax and the corporate property tax. The taxes and duties listed above are collected in the commune and distributed between the commune and the region in accordance with a distribution grid. Only the communes collect taxes. As the region is an amalgamation of several communes, it does not have its own territorial jurisdiction from which taxes can be levied. However, a part of the communal revenues (from 3 to 50% depending on the type of tax) is passed on to the benefit of the regional budget. Property taxes include the tax on freehold property (TBM or taxe sur les biens de mainmorte), the surface tax, the land tax on developed and undeveloped properties and the taxes levied on subdivision operations, notably the tax on use.

The taxes shared between the State and the LRAs are: the proportional royalties from mining production, the tax on petroleum products, the proceeds from police fines, the surface tax, the tax on the use of property, the property tax and the fee for the use of public land, and the sale of tender documents.

Tax revenues represent 19.3% of local revenues and are dominated by direct taxes and duties which represent 77.6% against 22.4% for indirect taxes. The most important tax is the business tax (patente), which accounts for 62.9% of all collected revenues and 81.0% of direct taxes. Indirect taxes are dominated by the tax on the use of property.

GRANTS AND SUBSIDIES: Grants and subsidies represent 25.6% of LRA revenues. These grants and subsidies come mainly from the central government and include funds transferred to support devolved powers, as well as overall operating and infrastructure grants. There are also the drawing rights of the former PFLRAD (now SDLRA). Drawing rights are grants given to LRAs on a per capita basis to finance investments to promote their development. Most of these grants and subsidies are earmarked for specific purposes over which LRAs have no decision-making power.

The gradual transfer of powers has been supported by financial transfers from the State to LRAs: the allocations linked to the transfer of powers have increased from CFAF 51.4 billion (about USD 249 million PPP) in 2018 to CFAF 39.1 billion (about USD 190 million PPP) in 2019 and CFAF 39.5 billion (about USD 182 million PPP) in 2020.

OTHER REVENUE: This category represents 52.0% of local revenues (including communes and regions). It mainly includes non-tax revenues, operating carryovers, deferred investment surpluses, adjustments to the financial year, exceptional grants, other exceptional income, lapsed mandates and other grants.

Non-tax revenues are a set of revenues specific to the LRAs, coming from various sources, including rent for the use of public infrastructure, the slaughter tax, fees for administrative and civil status documents, revenues from municipal maternity wards, revenues from movie theatres, revenues from conceded or leased services, real estate transfer tax (stamps), revenues from police fines, sweeping fees and waste collection fees. These local taxes and their amounts are established by deliberation of the council of the local or regional authority.

ⓘ No detailed data available for this country

FISCAL RULES: Local and regional authorities are regulated by the same budgetary rules as the State, which are based on the principles defined in the WAEMU “Directives on the code of transparency, finance laws and general regulations on public accounting”. These are: annuality, unity, universality, anteriority, sincerity, budgetary balance, legality of the tax and speciality of credit. The principle of a balanced budget applies to the balance of revenue and spending in the accounts.

DEBT: In accordance with Article 17 of the GCLRA, loans are subject to prior authorisation by the supervisory authority, i.e., the Ministry of Finance. Borrowing conditions are defined by a decree issued by the Council of Ministers on the proposal of the Minister of Finance (Decree 2009-150/PRES/PM/MEF of 27 March 2009 on the general regulation of public debt and public debt management and Decree 98-296/MEF/SG/DGTCP/DDP of 18 December 1998 on the application of procedures for the indebtedness of the State and its divisions). The main procedures for LRAs going into debt are as follows: (i) direct borrowing by LRAs with sufficient financial capacity to cover debt repayment; (ii) borrowing by the State and on-lending to the LRA via external or internal financing; (iii) and borrowing by the LRA and guaranteed by the State. Unlike central government borrowing, subnational government borrowing only finances capital investments and these must be included in the capital investment section of the local budget. So far, only the cities of Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso have been able to take out loans, notably from the World Bank, which were on-lent by the State. Ouagadougou has also received non-sovereign loans from AFD.

TERRITORIAL MANAGEMENT OF THE CRISIS: Burkina Faso took measures to combat the spread of the virus and to curb its socio-economic effects. To this end, a national committee for the management of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis (CNGCP-COVID-19 or comité national de gestion de la crise de la COVID-19) was set up by Decree 2020/0326/ PM/MATDC/MINEFID/MS/MFSNFAH of 4 May 2020. This committee comprises a central level headed by the prime minister and ministers, an intermediate level headed by regional governors and a peripheral level headed by high commissioners. Representatives of local and regional authorities are members of all three levels of the committee. As soon as it was established, this committee developed a national crisis response plan for the COVID-19 pandemic. The various measures to combat COVID-19 were taken directly by the Council of Ministers on the proposal of the National Management Committee. These measures include the quarantine of all towns and cities with recorded cases of COVID-19. Since 27 March 2020, 8 cities have been quarantined (Ouagadougou, Bobo-Dioulasso, Boromo, Dédougou, Houndé, Banfora, Manga and Zorgho). In addition to this, land and air borders were closed, a measure that particularly affected the border towns and the two main airports of Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso. These measures were taken by Decree 2020-0323/PM/MDNAC/MATDC/MSECU/MS/MTMUSR/MCIA of 30 April 2020 restricting freedoms as part of the measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. While the quarantine was lifted in early May, the continued closure of the borders until November 2021 adversely affected the revenues of these communes due to the decline in cross-border activity.

EMERGENCY MEASURES TO COPE WITH THE CRISIS AT THE DIFFERENT LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT: The response measures were decreed by the head of state and the operational details defined by the national committee. Those that directly concerned the communes, particularly between April and June 2020, were: (i) exemption from the micro-enterprise contribution (CME) for taxpayers engaged in a self-employed professional activity with an annual turnover of less than CFAF 15 million; (ii) a 25% reduction in the business tax (patente) for companies in the passenger transport, restaurant and tourism, hotel and similar sectors; (iii) exemption from the tax on performances for performance organisers; (iv) exemption from stamp duty on gross revenue from cinematographic, videographic and similar screenings; (v) suspension of rents for the occupation of shops and spaces in markets and places where goods are sold; (vi) free parking for taxis and suspension of parking fees; and (vii) exemption from the minimum flat-rate fee, for companies in the passenger transport, catering, tourism, hotel and similar sectors.

IMPACTS OF THE CRISIS ON SUBNATIONAL GOVERNMENT FINANCE: The various measures taken by the government have had an impact on LRAs’ finances. For example, the closure of the largest markets, particularly in the commune of Ouagadougou, has had an impact on local revenues. Local revenues decreased as follows: micro-business contribution (-52.3%); cinema tax (-58.7%); local and similar taxes (-39.6%); market and travelling vendor fees (-21.9%); parking fees (-9.8%); and fees for the use of public property (-16.9%).

In response to this situation, the ministers in charge of finance and decentralisation signed Circular 2020-1082 MINEFID/MATDC of 29 May 2020 on measures to optimise the budget management of LRAs with regard to COVID-19. Accordingly, the LRAs were invited to assess the impact of the situation on their budgets and to carry out a budget adjustment. Following this circular, the LRAs carried out reviews which led, for the most part, to reducing operating expenses which were considered optional (travel expenses, fuel, festive activities) due to the reduction in activity as a result of the lockdown, and to budgeting for certain expenses in order to deal with COVID-19.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL STIMULUS PLANS: The economic recovery plan was a central government initiative. At the national level, the stimulus package, which covered the period from May 2020 to December 2021, included the introduction of two funds: (i) the business economic recovery fund of CFAF 100 billion (USD 460 million PPP) intended to finance cash flow or investment loans, low-interest loans, interest rate subsidies, deposits in partners' current accounts for AIR Burkina and subsidies on the salary charges and social debts of the affected companies and (ii) a special fund of CFAF 5 billion (USD 23 million PPP) set up to finance specific income-generating activities for women.