07 July 2005

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso: A United Nations Volunteers (UNV) supported ‘training of trainers’ workshop launched yesterday in the Burkina Faso capital will help reinforce the government’s decentralization plan.

The four-day human rights, citizenship and local democracy training course is organized by the Ministry of Decentralization and Local Administration, the Ministry for the Promotion of Human Rights, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Association of Burkina Faso Mayors, UNV, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), as well as local NGOs working in human rights and governance are also providing support to the training initiative, which is financed by the Government of Luxembourg.

Thirty-five participants – municipal administrators and representatives of local city halls and human rights associations – from the provinces of Bulmkiendé, Houet, Kadiogo and Tuy will receive the formation to better communicate the message of decentralization to local populations. A Burkinabe UN Volunteer is taking part to share the training with civil society organizations operating in the western region of the country – the site of UNV’s REPAJE initiative, a separate project aimed at lifting the region’s youth out of poverty.

At the opening ceremony of the training course, the secretary general of the Ministry of Decentralization and Local Administration said the training reinforces national efforts to promote public participation in the government’s decentralization initiatives. "This training represents an important step in the process of formulating training tools on citizenship and human rights in Burkina Faso,” said Kalifara Seré. “The government believes that it will be through this strengthening of citizenship that local democracy will be achieved and that the decentralization process will be accomplished".

Francesco Galtieri, the UNV Programme Officer in Burkina Faso, said “raising citizens’ awareness around social, economic and cultural rights, and participatory democracy will help the country involve the beneficiaries of local development initiatives as responsible actors of decentralization.”

UNESCO is carrying out similar human rights and democracy training initiatives in Mali and Senegal. UN Volunteer Marie de Coune of Belgium manages the projects out of UNESCO’s regional bureau in the Malian capital of Bamako.

The UNV programme has been active in Burkina Faso since 1973. Thirty-seven UN Volunteers are currently engaged in a broad range of fields such as natural resource management, food security, micro finance, health, education, as well as new information and communication technologies.