The Public Interest Group-National Volunteer Program in Burkina Faso (GIP-PNVBF) is holding the first edition of the National Forum of Volunteering Stakeholders in Burkina Faso (FONAV/BF), from May 21 to 23, 2024 in Ouagadougou.
In order to reflect on the issues of management and promotion of volunteering for a better contribution to the socio-economic development of Burkina Faso, the Ministry of Sports, Youth and Employment (MSJE), through the Groupement d public interest-National Volunteering Program in Burkina Faso (GIP-PNVBF), invited stakeholders, from May 21 to 23, 2024 in Ouagadougou, for the first edition of the National Forum of Volunteering Stakeholders in Burkina Faso (FONAV/BF ). A meeting on the theme: “Contribution of volunteering to the socio-economic development of Burkina Faso: current situation, issues and perspectives”. According to the Minister in charge of employment, Boubacar Savadogo, at the national level, the theme of the forum is justified by the need to mobilize stakeholders for reflection on the problem of management and promotion of volunteering for a better contribution to the socio-economic development of Burkina.
This is why the patron of the ceremony, the President of the Transitional Legislative Assembly (ALT), Ousmane Bougouma, welcomed the holding of this first FONAV/BF which is, according to him, a framework of communion, of exchanges, analyses, introspection and projections offered to all stakeholders in the national volunteering ecosystem. “Whoever speaks of volunteers, speaks of commitment, self-sacrifice, solidarity, patriotism, which are essential values on which we must rely more than ever,” declared President Bougouma. For the president of the ALT, the theme of the meeting highlights the need for the commitment of each citizen in the current context of Burkina. And in this sense, the general director of GIP-PNVBF, Boureima Nabaloum, suggested that volunteering means helping your neighbor. And to ensure that volunteers in Burkina intervene in all sectors such as health, environment, security like the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP), the Deputy Security Volunteers (VADS).
The contribution of volunteers
The president of the national youth council, Moumouni Dialla, welcomed this great initiative of the National Volunteer Program which is an excellent instrument for the promotion of youth. Mr. Dialla appealed to state and non-state actors to support volunteering so that it reaches more than a million volunteers in the years to come. For the president of the national youth council, volunteering will allow young people, those in school and those not in school, to be able to learn and contribute to the socio-economic development of the country. President Ousmane Bougouma also paid particular tribute to the brave VDP who responded to the call of the Nation alongside the FDS, to the National Volunteers (VN) who are deployed on the various development projects without forgetting the VADS who brave the sun, the dust, the risk of accidents, the incivility and the intolerance of road users to regulate road traffic alongside the security forces, the international volunteers who have chosen Burkina and who are investing in the well-being of our fellow citizens. “Volunteering, in addition to being a form of citizen participation in development, is a real tool for involving young people and populations as a whole in the national development effort,” said Mr. Bougouma.
Oumarou RABO
Raynatou BARRY (Intern)