Reform policy, growth and poverty in Burkina Faso

In the late 1980s Burkina Faso embarked on an ambitious programme of political and economic reforms. Reform policy has been successful in breaking down the worst sides of the patronage system put in place in the country after independence, by introducing some structural reforms and reorienting public expenditures in favour of the social sectors and rural areas. This reorientation was initiated in the early 1990s but has recently received a new impulse from the HIPC initiative. It has also run parallel with an improvement of the economic situation. Poverty is still pervasive and overall only minor changes could be noticed in its evolution over the 1990s. In urban areas poverty actually increased. A reason is that higher economic growth has not been sufficient to outweigh the impact of rapid population growth on the scope and depth of poverty. Only still higher, more sustained and better-balanced growth can significantly reduce poverty in Burkina Faso. But in order to design measures that will permit the achievement of higher growth, a better understanding of the role of human capital accumulation, the informal sector and agriculture in economic development is required.