Burkina Faso : Strengthening safety net response to crisis

Burkina Faso's economy is predominantly agrarian-based. Over 90 percent of the country's population lives in rural areas and more than 80 percent of the working population derives their income from agriculture, mostly subsistence farming. Due to the country's reliance on agriculture, Burkina Faso is susceptible to environmental crises. Severe weather fluctuations, such as a reduction in rainfall that damages agriculture, cause severe decreases in families' income causing malnutrition and other health-related problems. For instance, in 2007, the total spending on social safety net programs (including fuel subsidies) reached about 1.3 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but spending on targeted safety nets was 0.6 percent of GDP while a universal fuel subsidy that barely reached poor households was 0.7 percent of GDP. this pool of information, the project will then accomplish the following: outline the key operational and design features of public works and cash transfer programs that are most relevant for Burkina Faso and that have best chances for success targeting method (how beneficiaries will be identified); how households will be registered, payment modalities, operational costs, etc; identify who will be implementing the selected programs; define monitoring and evaluation indicators to be used to measure program outcomes; prepare implementation plans for a potential pilot project that specify scale, cost and duration of implementation; and, develop an interim operational procedures manual to guide the implementation of selected programs.