Dakar, Jan 14 (APS) – A Burundian delegation began a several-day mission to Senegal to draw inspiration from the experience of the Emergency Community Development Program (PUDC).
The said delegation led by Frédéric Nimubona, deputy chief of staff of the Prime Minister, met on Monday with the Minister of Family and Solidarity, Maïmouna Dièye.
“We could have stayed in Burundi and you could have sent us documents, but it was more interesting for us to come to the field and see with our own eyes how you designed and carried out all that,” declared Frédéric Nimubona, during of this meeting.
Addressing the minister, he stressed that Burundi carried out a new administrative division in July 2023 marked by a reduction in the number of provinces and communes and an increase in the number of zones.
Mr. Nimubona noted that Burundi has set itself the objective of being an emerging country by 2040 and a developed country from 2060.
According to him, this emergence “can only happen” through the municipalities and Senegal is a “fine example and the best choice” from which we must draw inspiration.
”We will develop and finalize the program for the emergence of communes with a model and funding, and then we will see how to implement it,” said the head of the Burundian delegation.
The government of Senegal, with technical support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), launched the PUDC in 2015. This program aims to improve rural populations’ access to basic social services through the establishment of socio-economic infrastructure, while promoting the involvement of local stakeholders in the economic and social development of their localities.
”I am so reassured by the possibilities that we have in common such as the fight against poverty and inequalities,” declared the Minister of Family and Solidarity, addressing the Burundian delegation.
“There is a lot to do” in many African countries in terms of social equity, territorial equity”, according to Maimouna Dièye, believing that programs like the PUDC are “examples of success” to “value and share”.
The National Coordinator of the PUDC, Cheikh Diop, recalled that the program worked in a first phase on financing of 123 billion.
»In 2016, the State of Senegal decided to open a phase 2 with a budget of 300 billion to still continue on basic socio-economic infrastructure, access to water, reduction of works in rural areas and electrification,” he added.
According to him, the activities of the PUDC are ”at the heart of the 2050 Agenda” through social and territorial equity.
”It is a program which is an economic model of development because other countries such as Gambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Congo, Togo have already come to Senegal to imbibe it”, said Mr. Diop.
The deputy resident representative of the UNDP, Catherine Phuong, declared that the Burundian delegation is interested in the PUDC model, which “has improved the quality of life and access to basic services for populations who are among the poorest and most marginalized in this country.
As part of this immersion visit, the delegation will travel to Kaolack, Fatick and Thiès.
MFD/OID/AB
