Tempered Great Expectations—President Requests Modest Increase in International Family Planning Budget
Burkina Faso's Family Planning Budget Commitments
To support the achievement of its FP2030 commitments that were updated in 2022, the government of Burkina Faso pledged to increase the budget line allocated to the purchase of contraceptive products by at least 10% each year from 2022 to 2025.
Given the impact of COVID-19 on donor resources for family planning (FP) and the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office aid cuts, domestic resource mobilization for FP has become more important than ever. In 2021, Burkina Faso published its new costed implementation plan, the National Family Planning Plan 2021–2025, and its FP2030 commitments. Both documents detail the government’s plans for increasing and spending domestic resources for FP commodity supplies and services.
Burkina Faso’s Performance on the FY 2021 FP Budget Scorecard
Developed by PAI’s partners in Burkina Faso — SOS Jeunesse et Défis (SOS/JD) and Centre pour la Gouvernance Démocratique (CGD) — in collaboration with PAI, this scorecard is an advocacy and accountability tool highlighting the findings of the organizations’ FP budget tracking using the Common Framework, a set of indicators used for monitoring government spending on FP. In addition to data on indicators, the scorecard evaluates the transparency of FP budget data. The scorecard is a product of PAI’s Government Accountability for Family Planning Budgets initiative.
According to the budget tracking data, the government of Burkina Faso allocated 1.3 billion West African CFA francs (FCFA) for the purchase of FP commodities in fiscal year (FY) 2020, though this number decreased to FCFA 900 million in FY 2021. The amount the government allocated in FY 2021 was less than 17% of the total funding need for FP commodities.
However, the government of Burkina Faso must be commended for spending 100% of the FCFA 900 million allocated for the purchase of FP commodities in FY 2021. This percentage increased from 69% expenditures in FY 2020.
Recommendations to strengthen government ownership of Burkina Faso’s FP programs and to improve the transparency of FP budget data include:
- Respect its commitment to increase the budget allocated to the purchase of FP commodities by at least 10% each year.
- Pool efforts to monitor its FP commitments with other FP stakeholders and funders.
- Strengthen the coordination and visibility of FP programs and work with the Ministry of Health and Family Health Department (DSF) to centralize FP actions in order to facilitate capitalization.
- Create a specific budget line item called “FP programs expenditure” to make data about the allocated budget for FP programs public and accessible, as these data are not currently available.
Other Country Scorecards
