Burkina Faso

BURKINA FASO IS A landlocked country in west Africa with limited natural resources, fragile soil, and a high population density that contribute to it being one of the poorest nations in the world. Burkina Faso was formerly known as Upper Volta. It achieved independence from France in 1960.

The country has a highly unequal distribution of income, with 45 percent of its population living below the official poverty line. Most of the population is engaged in subsistence farming, primarily growing cotton for export. Agricultural production in Burkina Faso suffers from drought, desertification, and soil degradation. Another export product, livestock, contributes to overgrazing. A large percentage of the male population migrates to neighboring countries for seasonal farm work. Conflicts in southern neighbors Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire sometimes limit this seasonal migration, thus contributing to the poverty problem. The limited industrial production in Burkina Faso is primarily controlled by the government and thus remains inefficient and unprofitable. The 2004 per capita Gross Domestic Product in Burkina Faso was estimated to be $1,200, which implies the average person lives on less than $3.29 per day.

Burkina Faso works with developed nations and international organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, to reduce its level of poverty. It developed a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), which was approved by the IMF and the World Bank in 2000. The PRSP describes the country's economic development objectives for 2000–15, serves as a guide for the country in its actions to reduce poverty, and outlines the conditions necessary for it to maintain financial support from the IMF and the World Bank. The PRSP recommendations include improvements to the education and health systems of Burkina Faso and the privatization of its publicly owned industries.

These reforms are key components of mainstream economic development theory. Increased spending on health and education typically increases the productivity of workers and results in higher incomes and thus a higher standard of living. Private businesses are usually more efficient than those operated by the government. Thus privatization may be beneficial in increasing the quantity of goods and services produced and available to a society.

Burkina Faso participates in the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, which is a program developed [Page 98]by the IMF and the World Bank to reduce the external debt burdens of poor countries to sustainable levels. Under the initiative, Burkina Faso agreed to economic and social policy reforms in exchange for a reduction of the amount of money owed to other countries. Burkina Faso was a beneficiary of a 2005 decision by the Group of Eight, which is an informal organization of some of the world's wealthiest countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Under this agreement, the World Bank, the IMF, and the African Development Fund agreed to cancel 100 percent of the money owed to them by 18 of the world's poorest countries, including Burkina Faso.

Human Development Index Rank: 175

Human Poverty Index Rank: 102