The headquarters of the African Local Government Academy (ALGA) of UCLG Africa for the Francophone region, hosted a session on International Francophone training in participatory budget (BP) from February 27 – March 1, 2018, in Ouagadougou (Burkina).

Twelve participants from six African countries, (Ivory Coast, Mali, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Senegal, Togo) benefited from the training, which formed part of ALGA’s participatory budget college.

Through the partnership signed between UCLG Africa, Enda Ecopop and IOPD Africa (the International Observatory for Participatory Democracy), the main objective of this first promotion of facilitators was the creation of a network of reference facilitators in BP.

Today the PB is one of the most innovative practices with regards to citizen participation in local governance and more and more cities and towns in Africa are showing interest in this practice, with an annual average of 300 African cities wishing to utilize this approach.

As the voice of local authorities on the continent, UCLG Africa, through its Academy (ALGA), wishes to meet the challenge of creating resources that can support them in this process and to make these available to the territorial authorities.

Participants were trained in 4 key areas: the content of the BP, the tools and support of the facilitator, the preparation of the pilot workshops and the implementation of the pilot workshops.

Training was provided by Mr. Bachir Kanouté, executive director of ENDA ECOPOP and coordinator of the IOPD Africa Regional Office: This session was the 9th promotion for Enda Ecopop and IOPD Africa, who have been involved in this field for several years,

Facilitators exchanged experiences from their countries of decentralization, local budgetary processes and citizen participation. Training highlighted the role of the BP facilitator who manages the implementation of activities in order to achieve anticipated results.

More information at UCLG Africa website