Burkina Faso's Poverty ReductionStrategies (PRS) of the 2000s, which were implemented asannually rolled-over Priority Action Programs, focused onfour pillars: a) accelerating broad based growth; b)expanding access to social services for the poor; c)increasing employment and income-generating activities forthe poor; and d) promoting good governance. Increased publicexpenditure and targeted social service provision also ledto improved access to basic services. In the area ofeducation, progress has been made in terms of schoolinfrastructure. Over the period of 2003-2008, substantialexpansion (around 40 percent) of both the number of schoolsand the number of classrooms was achieved. Controlling andtreating epidemic diseases also had good results, thanks toprevention and public awareness efforts and improvedhygiene. Meanwhile, the country has been through severalexogenous shocks and crises likely to have affected thepattern of poverty outcomes. In the past two decades,Burkina Faso's income per capita growth has beenpositive and less volatile relative to the past. Recentgrowth trends appear to be anchored by a general recovery inthe primary sector. Household consumption was just asvolatile as income per capita in the 1980s, but recoveredsubstantially after the country gained competitiveness inthe latter half of the 1990s following devaluation. However,since then, consumption has exhibited much more volatilitythan output. Finally, most the social indicators show animprovement in Burkina Faso since the early 1980s. BurkinaFaso has kept pace with the overall positive trends observedin Sub-Saharan Africa and low income countries.
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