Integrated SDG Insights
Burkina Faso
UNDP’s Integrated SDG Insights explore how to achieve the SDGs by 2030. So that no one is left behind.
How To Read This Report
‘SDG Insights’ playbooks transcend development “as usual,” and leverages data innovation, AI and systems analysis to chart credible pathways that help countries meet the 2030 Agenda.
SDG Moment — This section provides an overview of a country's economic growth trajectory, with new insights on sustainability and inclusiveness of growth pathways.
SDG Trends & Priorities — This section builds from the foundation of national SDG progress and uses machine learning to analyse national development ambition with an SDG lens.
SDG Interlinkages — Combined, these insights are mapped against SDG interlinkages to define policy choices the accelerate SDG progress, tailored to national context.
Finance & Stimulus — These policy choices are made against fiscal constraints and opportunities for stimulus mapped in this section to ensure choices translate to development impact and leave no one behind.
1. SDG Moment
While economic growth is a key element in achieving the SDGs, many countries are intent on moving beyond growth as a yardstick for progress. In the short run, growth enables the SDGs; but in the long run, the SDGs aim to transform the pattern of growth itself.
GDP Growth Pathways
People
Poverty: Percentage of the population under each threshold (PPP$ a day).
Data not available.
Planet
Carbon Intensity: CO2 emissions intensity of GDP (tCO2 per PPP $1,000).
Burkina Faso’s pace of growth during the 2023-2025 cycle is transitioning from a coping phase to acceleration, characterized by being 86% higher, on average, than the global rate of growth, and converging with the country’s growth trajectory projected before the pandemic. Accordingly, Burkina Faso’s commitments to achieving the SDGs are focused on increasing people’s well-being, eradicating of extreme poverty, reducing inequalities and protecting the environment.
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However, this pace of growth comes at the expense of the environment as the country’s fossil carbon emissions intensity of GDP is expected to increase at an annual rate of 13%, and of 6% when also considering land-use change. Despite the positive impact of the economic expansion on lowering the incidence of poverty at $2.15 and $3.65 a day, there are still significant challenges to accelerate the pace of poverty reduction from its relatively high prevailing levels.
2. SDG Trends & Priorities
Trends
Understanding how
Burkina Faso
performs against the SDG targets provides a baseline landscape against which to build integrated SDG pathways. SDG progress tracking follows UN Stats standards and methodology, and is aligned with country profiles.
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Priorities
Burkina Faso
’s national priorities are analysed using machine learning to reveal the most prominent SDGs referenced in national policy documents. This analysis uses a custom-built model for SDG classification. It considers 100k+ terms, including phrases and expressions.
3. SDG Interlinkages
Maps synergies and trade-offs of national priorities to the most relevant SDG targets to chart policy pathways with most potential to accelerate progress.
8.5: Full employment and decent work with equal pay
In the National Benchmark of Development 2021-2025, one of four pillars is to boost promising sectors for the economy and for jobs. The others focus on resilience, security, social cohesion and peace; deepening institutional reforms and modernizing public administration; and consolidating the development of human capital and national solidarity. SDG interlinkages demonstrate the potential for decent work and job creation to be a driver of progress across all four pillars.
The focus for Burkina Faso is to create decent jobs and to help transition jobs into better ones. Burkina Faso’s ambition is “decent job opportunities are guaranteed to all, including youth and women”.
11.2: Affordable and sustainable transport systems
Efforts were made during 2016-2020 in the construction of transport infrastructure, but it is not yet sufficient to open up all production areas. Burkina Faso has made progress in reducing waiting time at a bus stop, age of vehicles used for the transport of goods, extreme overloading and securing of transport tickets.
More progress, however, needs to be made in planning and managing urban mobility, in the professionalization of those active in the transport sector, in the attractiveness of public transport, road safety and in the competitiveness of air and rail transport. This has to be done in a manner that also reduces CO2 emissions.
As is the case with development efforts, Burkina Faso needs to continue to improve its data systems to celebrate its success and to undertake any corrective measures.
16.6: Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels
In Burkina Faso’s National Benchmark of Development 2021-2025, one of the goal is to increase the proportion of local authorities whose essential public services are functional from 40% in 2020 to 50% in 2025.
Once this is achieved the experience of citizens with public services will most likely improve. However, the challenge is always to know whether indeed this experience has improved and, if not, to take corrective action. For this reason, Burkina Faso may consider a mechanism to track this experience on a regular basis.
A point that emerges based on the chart on the right, these public services cut across different sectors. In addition, Burkina Faso may want to reflect on which of the public services will be transformative for the country, so that tracking and corrective actions are specific enough to make a difference.
15.1: By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainableuse of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services.
By prioritizing Target 15.1 in its 2021-2025 National Development Plan, Ecuadorreaffirmed the significance of protecting and preserving terrestrial ecosystems andtheir biodiversity. This includes recognizing that the investment projects intendedto fulfil Target 15.1 will not only contribute to achieving the SDGs 13, 14 and 15, butwill also help restore ecosystems that underpin the availability and comprehensivemanagement of water resources (SDG 6) and promote their sustainable use (Target12.2). Additionally, it will also foster the generation of new energy from renewablesources (Target 7.2).
To this end, Ecuador seeks to strengthen the management of the National Systemof Protected Areas through its 2022-2032 Strategic Plan and the implementationof the National Forest Restoration Plan 2019-2030. These instruments serve as thetechnical, legal and financial foundation for executing local forest restorationprocesses with a landscape vision, with an overall goal of covering 30,000hectares through its projects. Considering that the proportion of national territoryunder conservation or environmental management, as of 2022, stands at 22.1%, itis necessary to mobilize additional financial resources from various sources andestablish robust governance (Target 17.3) to intensify the care of protected areas.This ensures the conservation of natural and cultural resources, genetic flows, theprovision of environmental services for the benefit of the population and thealignment of policies on the ground.
Futures Scenarios
SDG Push is a futures scenario based on 48 integrated accelerators in the areas of Governance, Social Protection, Green Economy and Digital Disruption. It uses national data to explore the impact on human development by 2030 and 2050 across key SDG indicators. It does this by using ‘International Futures,’ a systems model designed to explore interactions across development systems.
Poverty <$1.90 Per Day (Number of People)
Malnourished Children Under 5 (Number Of Children)
Malnourished Children Under 5 (Number Of Children)
4. Finance and Stimulus
Many countries are facing reduced fiscal space, high debt levels, rising interest rates and downgrades on credit ratings. Fiscal and financial constraints tend to slow or even reverse SDG progress.
Burkina Faso's gross government debt, projected at 58% of GDP in 2023, is nearly 10 percentage points (pp) above the low-income developing countries’ (LIDC) average of 48.3%. The country is projected to collect 20.6% of GDP in revenue this year and thus more than a third than the LIDC group ratio of 14.9%.
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Burkina Faso's public external debt servicing this year is projected to reach 8% of revenue, which is 6.1 pp below the LIDC average. The latest World Bank and IMF DSA from April 2023 rates the country as at ‘moderate risk of debt distress’.
SDG Stimulus
The UN Secretary General’s SDG Stimulus Plan lays out a blueprint for action within the existing financial architecture. It includes:
- Providing liquidity to support recovery in the near term
- Enhance debt relief for vulnerable countries.
- Expanding development financing by MDBs
- Align financial flows with the SDGs and Paris Agreement, according to country-level priorities and needs, for example through the rollout of the UN Integrated National Financing Framework (INFFs).
Given the projected fiscal and financial constraints faced by
Burkina Faso
possible funding options for the investments derived from the identified interlinkages are as follows:
- Tax and revenue reform
- Debt for SDGs
- Climate finance
- Blended and public-private finance
- SDG-aligned business environment and investment
- Accessing financial markets and insurance
- Remittances, philanthropy and faith-based financing
- Official development aid
- Public-private partnerships
- Direct foreign investment
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Methodology & Data Sources
Click here to view the Methodological Note for the Integrated SDG Insights.
This report is the result of a global exercise carried out using artificial intelligence to identify SDG priorities based on 10 national government documents, together with SDG progress and SDG interlinkage analysis. The implementation and monitoring of the 2030 Agenda in Argentina should be consulted in the Country Reports and National Voluntary Reports.
SDG Moment
Methodology
Assesses challenges and opportunities in national growth trajectories with insights on environmental sustainability and inclusiveness.
Data Sources
Future trajectories to 2025 are based on IMF-WEO GDP projections, distributions of per capita income or consumption from the World Bank, and CO2 emissions from the Global Carbon Budget 2022 and EDGAR (JRC and IEA).
Trends & Priorities
Methodology
SDG trends tracks progress from 2015 to date for the 231 indicators. National priorities are analysed using machine learning to reveal the most prominent SDGs referenced in national policy documents.
Data Sources
SDG trends tracks progress from 2015 to date for the 231 indicators. National priorities are analysed using machine learning to reveal the most prominent SDGs referenced in national policy documents.
Interlinkages
Methodology
SDG trends tracks progress from 2015 to date for the 231 indicators. National priorities are analysed using machine learning to reveal the most prominent SDGs referenced in national policy documents.
Data Sources
The exercise globally considered a total of 454 documents published from 2015 to August 2022. (Miola et al., 2019 updated in 2021-2022)
Finance & Stimulus
Methodology
Provides insight into indicators of fiscal and financial stress with options (INFF) for stimulus and other means to accelerate progress.
Data Sources
Most recent resource data from UNU-WIDER GRD (between 2018 and 2021), debt and revenue from IMF WEO (between 2020 and forecasts for 2023), external debt from IDS (2023), yields from Haver Analytics (8 June 2023), credit ratings from S&P, Moodys and FITCH (2023), and DSA ratings from World Bank/IMF (31 May 2023).