Improving financial news in Burkina Faso

Journalists from twenty radio stations, four television stations and six newspapers in Burkina Faso had the opportunity to confer with half a dozen civil society organisations working on the topic of budgetary monitoring, and in particular on ways of improving the analytical capabilities of Burkinan citizens and addressing issues relating to financial transparency.

The topics covered included:
- the key points of budgetary analysis, presented by CERAFP (the centre for study and applied research in public finance);
- governance in the face of the challenge raised by social issues (corruption and governance:Ren-lac);
- and the role of citizens in governance (LaboCitoyenneté).

The journalists also benefited from sharing experiences of structures such as the Burkinan platform Gouvernance Accès Facile (GAF; Easy Access Governance), the group Commande publique (Burkina Faso), Social Watch (Benin) and Labo Citoyenneté (Burkina Faso), with regard to their approaches to the topic and media treatment of budgetary and financial news.

Two workshops focused on improving participants' adoption of good economic and political governance. The first related to public finances and citizen-led control and the second to access to financial news sources.