Burkina Faso: towards a third quadrennial periodic report
Burkina Faso is in the process of drafting its third quadrennial periodic report from 3 to 7 December 2019 in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. On this occasion, a multi-stakeholder national team appointed by the Ministry of Culture will be established to collect information and draft Burkina Faso’s periodic report. The team will be composed of representatives of various ministries involved in the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions as well as representatives of civil society involved in cultural and creative industries.
The national team will receive training, including on the new periodic reporting form, aligned with the eleven monitoring areas of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005). Facilitated by Désiré Ouédraogo, a member of the UNESCO Expert Facility, and organized by the Ministry of Culture, jointly with CERAV/Africa and the UNESCO Office in Dakar, the training will provide an opportunity to establish a framework for policies and measures to be included in the report and to identify sources for data collection. Together, participants will analyze the progress made over the past four years in terms of formulation of cultural policies and their impact. A multi-stakeholder consultation will be organized in December 2019 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, to inform a wider range of stakeholders on the periodic reporting process and ensure their participation and contribution to the report.
Burkina Faso was able to report in its second periodic report, submitted to UNESCO in 2016, on an innovative measure supporting sustainable cultural governance systems (Objective 1 of the 2005 Convention’s Monitoring Framework). The Coalition of Artists and Intellectuals for Culture brought together different voices from the cultural sphere to offer innovative perspectives on the role of cultural actors and civil society organizations in the design and implementation of public policies. Widely disseminated among decision-makers, these recommendations have contributed to informed and transparent decision-making by bringing the concerns of citizens, associations and businesses to the attention of public authorities.
The capacity-building activities are part of the project “Reshaping Cultural Policies for the Promotion of Fundamental Freedoms and the Diversity of Cultural Expressions”, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. The project, which includes 16 beneficiary countries amongst which Burkina Faso, aims to strengthen the human and institutional capacities of governmental and civil society actors in order to monitor and report on policies and measures that protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions.