Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 08/2010

A Crisis Multiplied: How the global economic crisis, coming on top of other shocks, is worsening poverty in Burkina Faso

Elizabeth Stuart

July 2010

Oxfam Publishing

Abstract

This paper documents the impacts of the global economic crisis on Burkina Faso, which exacerbated the effects of the previous food and fuel price crises and was then made worse by subsequent serious flooding. Based on interviews by the author with a number of international donors, government officials, economists, and civil society organizations in Ouagadougou – as well as a series of interviews with Burkinabe people conducted for Oxfam – the paper reflects how the multiple crises have affected the country’s ability to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, and considers the government’s response.