Burkina Faso

Since 2009 the government, with the support of technical and financial partners, has undertaken the development of a national policy, anticipated for adoption in early 2012, based on a social protection floor. This national social protection policy is focused on a limited number of programs based on prioritized needs, namely food security, access to education and health, as well as minimum income security and the launch of the high labour intensity work program (HIMO).

Within this framework, Burkina Faso is one of the three beneficiary countries of the ILO/EU project 'Improving Social Protection and Promoting Employment' with the objective of promoting an integrated social protection and employment policy based on national consensus.

The current structure of social protection in Burkina Faso was the product of progressive development since the colonial period. Many reference documents define its vision and trends, including the prospective study 'Burkina Faso 2025', the government’s Plan of Action 2009-2010 to address the effects of the financial and economic crisis on Burkina Faso’s economy and the 'Stratégie de Croissance Accélérée et du Développement Durable' (“Accelerated Growth and Sustainable Development Strategy”) (SCADD 2010-2015).

Social security benefits are provided on the one hand by the National Social Security Fund (Caisse Nationale de Sécurité Sociale - CNSS) for workers as provided by the labour code: family and maternity allowances and pensions for unemployment, old age, disability and death. On the other hand, the Autonomous Fund for Retired Officials (Caisse Autonome de Retraite des fonctionnaires – CARFO) covers retired public sector employees and provides pensions for old age, disability, death and, more recently (2006) work-related injuries. The CNSS had 224,208 active contributors in 2009, representing only about half of the target population and an evasion rate estimated at approximately 52%. The number of CARFO contributors rose to 94,542 in 2008. The spending of the CNSS and CARFO schemes represented 1.8% of GDP in 2008.

Public and private health insurance coverage mechanisms are numerous and, according to health budgets, some opt for social insurance (micro health insurance, employers’ schemes, etc.) though coverage is still low (approximately 3% of the population in 2008), and others rely on universal coverage. Since 2008, Burkina Faso has undertaken a study on a proposed project for national health insurance that would provide the country’s population with guaranteed basic services centred on public health services and essential and generic medicines, allowing for the organization of a coherent structure for health protection.

Social assistance in Burkina Faso is characterized by a variety of social safety net programs financed by public and international funds. Social assistance is comprised of income transfer programs, in cash and in kind, based in great part on food security, access to education and health services and the high labour intensity employment program (HIMO). Spending on social safety net programs rose to 1.6% of GDP in 2008 reaching nearly 2.8 million people (18% of the population).

Reviews conducted by the World Bank and UNICEF in 2001 (review of social safety nets) and another by the ILO in 2010/2011 (review of spending and performance of social protection) of the social protection programs and systems underline the system’s heterogeneity, lack of coordination and high dependence on international funding.