Sustaining Peace in Burkina Faso: Responding to an Emerging Crisis
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MAY 2020 Sustaining Peace in Burkina Faso: Responding to an Emerging Crisis CHRISTIAN LARA AND GABRIEL DELSOL Cover Photo: Joint UN mission to ABOUT THE AUTHORS evaluate the security and humanitarian situation in the Sahel region of Burkina CHRISTIAN LARA is a Rethinking Diplomacy fellow at the Faso, 2017. UN Burkina Faso. Duke University Center for International and Global Studies and former Team Leader of the Relief, Reintegration, and Disclaimer: The views expressed in this Protection Section at the United Nations Mission in South paper represent those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Sudan (UNMISS). International Peace Institute. IPI GABRIEL DELSOL is a consultant and former research welcomes consideration of a wide range of perspectives in the pursuit of intern at the International Peace Institute. a well-informed debate on critical policies and issues in international affairs. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IPI Publications IPI owes a debt of gratitude to its many donors for their Adam Lupel, Vice President generous support. IPI is particularly grateful to the govern- Albert Trithart, Editor ment of the UK for funding this research initiative. The Meredith Harris, Editorial Intern authors would like to thank the many UN officials, member- state representatives, representatives of civil society Suggested Citation: organizations, and experts who shared their insights and Christian Lara and Gabriel Delsol, perspectives during interviews conducted in “Sustaining Peace in Burkina Faso: Ouagadougou, Dakar, Geneva, and New York. The authors Responding to an Emerging Crisis,” are grateful to the individuals who provided invaluable International Peace Institute, May 2020. feedback on earlier drafts of this report. The authors appreciate the dedicated efforts of Albert Trithart and © by International Peace Institute, 2020 Meredith Harris during the revision phases, as well as the All Rights Reserved support of Thong Nguyen on data visualization and of Boris Bonego during the field visit to Burkina Faso. www.ipinst.org CONTENTS Abbreviations . iii Executive Summary . v Introduction. 1 Challenges and Opportunities for Sustaining Peace in Burkina Faso. 1 What is Sustaining Peace? . 5 Operational and Policy Coherence: Sustaining Peace and the UN Country Team . 6 Analysis and Strategic Planning: The Common Country Analysis and Cooperation Framework. 6 A Strengthened RCO and Coordination Mechanism at UN Headquarters . 7 Decentralizing the UN Presence to Address Vulnerability and Exclusion. 8 Leadership . 9 Role of National, Local, and Regional Partners . 11 Working with the Government . 11 Partnerships with Civil Society Organizations . 12 Regional Initiatives: AU, ECOWAS, and UNOWAS . 12 International Support: Coherent Frameworks for International Cooperation . 14 Added Value of the UN Peacebuilding Fund . 14 Coordinating International Support through the Peacebuilding Commission . 14 International Support to the Broader Sahel Region . 15 Conclusions. 16 Finalizing the Development System Reform Process . 16 Promoting Local Ownership of National Strategies . 16 Aligning Regional and Subregional Funding Streams . 17 Maintaining Political Engagement at UN Headquarters . 17 ABBREVIATIONS CCA Common country analysis CSO Civil society organization DPPA Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States IDP Internally displaced person MAP Matrice d’actions prioritaires NWOW New Way of Working OHCHR Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights PBC Peacebuilding Commission PBF Peacebuilding Fund PIP Priority Investment Programme PNDES Plan national de développement économique et social PPBA Prevention and Peacebuilding Assessment PUS-BF Programme d’urgence pour le Sahel au Burkina Faso RC Resident coordinator RCO Resident coordinator’s office SRSG Special representative of the secretary-general UNCT UN country team UNDP UN Development Programme UNISS UN Integrated Strategy for the Sahel UNOWAS UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel Executive Summary In his January 2018 report on peacebuilding and beyond the leadership level, and the resident sustaining peace, the UN secretary-general called coordinator’s office needs to be fully staffed for its for a shift not only in UN policies on peacebuilding efforts to be sustainable. but also in approaches to peacebuilding at the regional and country levels. In implementing this In terms of leadership, the resident coordinator’s shift, he advocated for changes across four issue office shows the potential to collaborate closely areas: operational and policy coherence; UN with the government while holding it accountable leadership at the country level; partnerships with for human rights violations and to adopt an local and regional actors; and international support expanded role in coordinating the humanitarian for sustaining peace. This was followed one year response. In terms of partnerships, the country later by the reform of the UN development system, team benefits from a strong relationship with the which empowered UN resident coordinators to be government that is focused on national and the heads of the UN country teams and to support subnational development strategies while finding the implementation of sustaining peace. opportunities to support civil society. The UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel plays a partic- In Burkina Faso, these changes come at a time of ularly important role in coordinating efforts increasing instability, with unprecedented humani- between regional organizations and the UN system. tarian and security crises and diminishing trust in Finally, in terms of international support, the rapid the government. Recognizing the growing risks, the increase in engagement by the Peacebuilding UN, the Burkinabe government, and their partners Commission and Peacebuilding Fund has provided began recalibrating their efforts in the country in the UN country team with much-needed political 2018 by developing new strategies and tools to and financial support, although the coordination of address these multidimensional challenges. This financing and programming among the growing ongoing recalibration, together with the changes number of regional development initiatives resulting from the UN development system remains a challenge. reforms, make this an opportune moment to assess the implementation of the secretary-general’s Continued support for the resident coordinator’s recommendations on peacebuilding and sustaining office in Burkina Faso is necessary to ensure that peace in Burkina Faso. the UN’s sustaining peace efforts in the country are part of a holistic approach to the crisis, together Implementation can be assessed across the four with local, national, and regional partners. This shifts called for by the secretary-general. In terms report recommends that the United Nations of operational and policy coherence, the UN finalize the development system reform process in development system reform has given the resident Burkina Faso by fully staffing the resident coordi- coordinator’s office more authority and capacity to nator’s office; continue promoting local ownership lead the country team’s efforts on sustaining peace of the country’s national strategies; better align the and ensure that new strategy and planning growing number of regional and subregional documents align with government efforts. The funding streams; and maintain engagement on rollout of five integrated hubs has also helped tailor Burkina Faso at UN headquarters, particularly these strategies to subnational contexts. However, through the Peacebuilding Commission. greater interagency coordination is required Sustaining Peace in Burkina Faso: Responding to an Emerging Crisis 1 Introduction operational and policy coherence, leadership at the UN country level, partnerships with local and The UN launched a system-wide effort to support regional actors, and international support for 1 the implementation of the sustaining peace agenda sustaining peace. In doing so, it seeks to assess the in Burkina Faso in February 2017 to help the extent to which the UN system contributes to government navigate the country’s 2014 political sustaining peace in the long term while also transition and address humanitarian and develop- effectively coordinating urgent short-term mental challenges. However, a rapidly deterio- responses such as life-saving humanitarian rating security situation and imminent humani- assistance. tarian crisis forced the UN to recalibrate this effort. The paper is based on primary and secondary In February 2019, the special representative of the research. Between September 2019 and March secretary-general (SRSG) of the UN Office for West 2020, forty-six interviews were conducted with UN Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), Mohamed Ibn staff, member-state representatives, academics, Chambas, was dispatched to assess the implemen- officials from the Burkinabe government, and tation of the peacebuilding framework in the representatives of civil society in New York, country. He recommended significant changes, Geneva, Dakar, and Ouagadougou. including strengthening the resident coordinator’s office (RCO), assessing the UN country team’s The research is part of a larger IPI project on the (UNCT) capacity to respond to the growing operationalization of the secretary-general’s humanitarian and security crises, and scaling up recommendations on peacebuilding and sustaining UN engagement on the priority areas identified by peace at the country level. Burkina Faso is the