Burkinabè Prime Minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouédraogo reaffirmed his government’s resolve to fund national development primarily through domestic resources, explicitly turning down external aid subject to political conditions.
Speaking following high-level talks in Ouagadougou with Haoliang Xu, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Ouédraogo emphasized that true sovereignty cannot coexist with a dependence on foreign handouts, asserting that recent drops in international aid have only strengthened Burkina Faso’s commitment to financial self-reliance.
Central to the discussions was Burkina Faso’s new national development framework, known as the RELANCE Plan, which aims to generate roughly 65 percent of its required funding from internal domestic revenue, leaving only 35 percent to be covered through international partnerships. In response, the UNDP representative praised the transparency of Ouagadougou’s strategic vision, noting that future UN engagement will concentrate heavily on delivering technical expertise, enhancing state administrative capacity, and implementing pooled procurement systems to minimize operational costs. The meeting formed part of a broader tour by the UNDP official across the Alliance of Sahel States (AES)—comprising Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger—designed to realign international development support with the sovereign choices and stated priorities of the regional bloc.
HO/te/lb/abj/APA