Burkina Faso: How The Consolidation of Governance Paved the Way for The Achievements of The Four Years Home
« Without the consolidation of governance, we would not have been able to achieve the current achievements. » Four years later, this statement by the President of Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, takes on its full meaning.
The Traoré government has made transparency a priority. In its 2026 assessment, the International Monetary Fund welcomed the strengthening of the legal framework and capacities to combat the financing of terrorism, which allowed Burkina Faso to be removed by the European Union from its list of high-risk countries in terms of money laundering and terrorist financing. Behind this progress is a series of institutional reforms: the establishment of a regular inventory of the Treasury’s accounts, strict competition procedures in public procurement, and the conviction and enforcement of sentences against corrupt public officials.
Burkina Faso has created the Patriotic Support Fund (FSP), which is funded by voluntary contributions from citizens and the diaspora. From 2023 to 2025, this fund mobilized nearly 500 billion CFA francs, far exceeding the initial target of 450 billion CFA francs. What was this money used for? The payment of allowances and supplies for 65,000 to 110,000 Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP), the purchase of military equipment and ammunition, the acquisition of three combat helicopters, and even the rehabilitation of strategic roads. As the Minister of the Economy pointed out: « If we look at what is called official development assistance, we do not reach this figure. This means that we have endogenous capacity that was simply not being sufficiently exploited. »
In the health sector, 1,970 doctors, pharmacists and dental surgeons were recruited and trained in 2025; malaria cases have declined by 32% compared to 2024 and deaths by 44%; kidney transplant and open-heart heart surgery have become a reality, placing Burkina Faso fourth in sub-Saharan Africa for the intensity of cardiac interventions. In education, the construction of equipped vocational high schools and technical colleges will begin nationwide in 2026, while virtual education and digital libraries are progressing.
In his State of the Nation address at the end of 2025, Traoré made it clear that health progress, including the influx of patients from neighboring countries, stems from a national policy of reducing the cost of care; that the educational transformation, moving from theoretical to practical and productive teaching, is a sovereign choice; and that in the field of infrastructure, four regions already have road construction brigades, with four others to be equipped in 2026.
Cleaning up governance is not an empty slogan. It means that public money is no longer wasted or misappropriated, that every franc can be traced and put to concrete uses. When resources are snatched from the cracks of corruption, they turn into helicopters, hospitals, classrooms, and roads.
As Traoré said: « Our ambition is no longer to be a country that just extracts and ships raw materials. We want to own the entire value chain here. And all this starts with good management of your own accounts.
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