WASHCost in Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso is one of the four countries involved in WASHCost project aimed at “Quantifying the unit costs of Water Sanitation and Hygiene services provided to poor populations in rural and peri-urban areas”. The project started in this country in May 2008 with the scoping visit carried out by IRC in partnership with CREPA (Centre Régional pour l’Eau Potable et l’Assainissement à faible coût), the project partner in the country. The scoping visit resulted in the identification of the key sector actors interested in the project, the setting up of the project basic team; in particular, the recruitment of the country coordinator and the selection of the local partner of the project.

The inception

Practically, the project activities started in June 2008 with the organisation of the inception meeting to inform the sector actors about the objectives of the project, to sound out their concepts of the unit cost and to collect their expectations regarding the project. The inception phase gathered about 30 participants from various sector categories of actors. It was the first time that such number of sector actors debated around WASH unit costs.

The meeting was chaired by the General Director of the water resources M. Francis BOUGAIRE. This reflected the commitment of the authorities and the general buy in by stakeholders of the project