ActionAid Burundi organized at Best Outlook Hotel (Bujumbura) a reflection workshop on the transformative vision of public services to reduce inequality and poverty in Burundi in the framework of the United Nations Public Service Day, celebrated on June 23th, 2017.
Adelin Ntanoga, in the middle, delivering the opening speech of the workshop
The ActionAid Burundi’s Programs and Policy Director, M. Adelin Ntanoga, recalled the significance of the World Public Service Day celebrated every year to particularly assess the development agenda, the question of inaccessibility to basic services, the lack of adequate and quality public services, their impact on women and young people.
There is no need to demonstrate the State’s central role in the production and provision of public services because quality services, whether the infrastructure or the services themselves, are the evidence of the effectiveness of the investments made. “Governments therefore needs human and financial resources to achieve that”, said M. Ntanoga.
He stressed on concerning reality that big companies and wealthy people do not pay their fair share of taxes in many countries according to their financial capabilities. It is critical the states invest in priority public services that boot income generation as the absence or the malfunctioning of public services erode of citizens’ confidence in their leaders. The privatization policies of public services are unfortunately based on the “distrust and the stigmatization of the state as a bad manager of public services, unable to provide quality services” added M. Ntanoga. “The increasing privatization of key public services coupled with the poor regulatory role of public structures contribute moreover, to poverty, inequality and the deprivation of human rights around the world”, he said.
“Business companies and rich individuals must pay their fair share of taxes”
This privatization is often overlapped with the state’s withdrawal from its obligation for providing social protection and with a decreasing State’s role to achieve the respect of basic human rights.
It is in this frame that ActionAid is running a decade-long campaign for the provision of transformative quality public services that will reduce inequality and poverty.
“We call appeal to the authorities to realize innovative investments in public services and those with transformative potential which are sensitive to gender and poor people’s rights “. In Burundi, Actionaid advocates for public services that offer equal opportunities for women and youth which are the most numerous categories of the society.
“We insist on the mobilization of public resources, especially tax revenue for the financing of public services and social protection which are the real solutions to eradicate poverty and injustice”, M. Ntanoga said.
According to M.Ntanonga, local and foreign business companies as well as wealthy individuals have to pay their taxes. But that is not always the case today.
It is in the same vein that Actionaid is engaged to contribute to the Government’ s efforts to build an equal society based on governance devoid of inequalities and injustices.
Participants were invited to reflect on public services in order to contribute to the transformation of women and youth’ lives.
Rich and varied themes
Family photo of participants in the workshop
The workshop was attended by representatives from various ministries, a Member of Parliament, representatives from the National women’s Forum, the Women Entrepreneurs Association, various youth and women’s associations and various media.
Reflection reflected the role of the state in promoting income opportunities for women and young people in the loop of “a transformative vision” for ending inequality and poverty. The first speeker M. Pierre Niyubahwe, the Director of monetary and financial policies in the Ministry of Finances, Budget and Privatization, presented the topic on the role of tax as a powerful political tool in the hands of governments to encourage the reduction of inequality and poverty. In the case of Burundi, “Tax is a stable resource, better than aid and borrowing”, he said as aid is linked by conditionalities while for the moment the external and internal debt levels have reached the critical level
He insisted rather on the role of tax, as a political instrument. According to M. Niyubahwe, the tax is currently insufficient or limited because it is collected in an inadequate way while it already affects the vulnerable people.
Hence, the challenge is for the state the reduction of social inequalities and the support to youth and women initiatives on the path of economic growth.
The second speaker, Mrs. Denise Kandondo focused on how public services and budget resources should incentivize women and youth’s business initiatives. “The state records several shortfalls in tax collection and all resources are not channeled into the public treasury for several reasons including corruption”, said Mrs. Kandondo. She suggested the need of transparency and good governance behavior with the government and tax payers. On one hand, the government should prioritize the development of other resources, from especially like the mining sector that could be generate additional resources to the public treasury.
The third speaker Mr. Gratien Nin developed the theme on “Budget Governance and Transformative Services”. Here, the speaker insisted on the vote of the budget by deputies.
The speaker focused on government budget processes and its adoption by the parliament. He raised the question of why budgets are adopted each year and why the level of poverty and inequality seems not to improve at the same time for the most vulnerable categories. He wondered if the MPs prioritized enough of the key sectors in public services needs in order to meet the needs of citizens and especially the vulnerable layers.
He recommended that MPs should prioritize enough key public services sectors that stimulate the development of economic opportunities in order to meet the citizens’ needs especially the vulnerable layers of the society. In addition, public budgets should be managed in the respect of three principles that are fiscal discipline, efficiency in resource allocation and performance in the provision of public services. In most cases, these principles are not respected today. And the role of the Ministry in charge of finance is determining.
Key recommendations
Partial view of participants in the workshop
Participants worked in reflection teams and recommended that the government should improve its strategies through allocating funds to youth and women’s initiatives and business such as cooperatives; make work the transformation of informal business in a formal economy; ensure transparency in the mining sector which is one of the driving forces for the economy development; allocate public funds into investment sectors able to boost sectors that have positive impact on production and national economy as a whole; improve budget planning at the municipal level and integrate all economic sectors across levels and take into account the development priorities of women and young people; strengthen citizen’s financial education; strengthen entrepreneurial capacity building from the local level for creating business entreprises; undertake profound tax reforms for channelizing all tax from big companies and welthy people to the fiscal net.
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