Launch of dissemination workshops on the 2022/2023 Finance Law in Burundi

The workshops to disseminate the 2022/2023 finance law were officially launched on Monday, September 12 in Burundi. This activity, led by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, aims to strengthen budget transparency and accountability and enhance communication between the Government and Burundian citizens on the subject of good public financial management.

In Bujumbura Mairie, the launch workshop began with a welcome speech by the representative of the mayor of the city who urged communal administrators and other grassroots administrators to organize regular meetings with the population to raise awareness. ‘’The population must follow closely the use of the state budget in order to achieve the expected results in their respective localities and also to implement the vision of his Excellency the President of the Republic summarized in the slogan: "That every mouth has food, and every pocket has money", mentioned Nimbona Anitha, on behalf of the Mayor of the city of Bujumbura.

These activities aim, on one hand, to explain how the Government redistributes its taxes to improve the well-being of the population through the creation and implementation of development projects. On the other hand, they allow the Burundian population to be informed on the process of elaboration and execution of the State budget as well as on the fundamental principles of public finance.

This year, the Burundian government has chosen to address provincial governors, administrators and communal accountants so that they, in turn, can widely disseminate to citizens the new provisions for executing the budget. The latter, as taxpayers, are considered as actors and first beneficiaries of national progress. As such, they have a duty to understand and appropriate the tools of public finance management.

"The more important these taxes are, the more development projects find important financing and the positive effects on the population are immediate", said the Permanent Secretary of the Minister of Finance, Niragira Christine in her speech.

The government has taken steps to improve public financial management by focusing on transparency, control and monitoring of current expenditures. For the year 2022/2023, the finance law is prepared in a particular context of implementation of public finance management reforms, aiming at the migration from the average budget to the program budget.

This results-based budgeting reform, where budget allocations are made on the basis of well-planned programs, projects and activities in the Annual Work Plans and Budget (PTBA), follows the instruction of His Excellency the President of the Republic.

Permanent Secretary Niragira Christine thanked UNICEF for its support in the implementation of these activities as well as for the good collaboration in public finance.

The head of the social policy section at UNICEF Burundi, Albert Ewodo Ekani, who represented the organization in this activity, praised the initiative that demonstrates the spirit of transparency and accountability of the Government of Burundi, offering citizens the opportunity to understand the data related to public policies.

Indeed, as part of the implementation of the cooperation program between UNICEF and the Government of Burundi for the years 2019-2023, UNICEF Burundi has developed a strategy on public finances to promote transparency, efficiency, equity, and coherence of public investments for children. This strategy is built around evidence generation, capacity building and technical assistance.

The head of the social policy section at UNICEF will reiterate his organization's readiness to continue working with the Government of Burundi to increase budgetary allocations to the social sectors. This would guarantee the improvement of the well-being of households in general and children as well as a real sustainable development in accordance with the orientations of the National Development Plan (NDP) and the Program for the Capitalization of Peace, Social Stability and the Promotion of Economic Growth (PNCP-SS-PCE).