OUAGADOUGOU -- On 31 March 2010, United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the Municipality of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso inaugurated the new headquarters of the International Training Center for Local Actors (CIFAL Ouagadougou). Funded by the Municipality of Ouagadougou, the new headquarters is comprised of a training room with a capacity of one hundred training places and many offices for running the training center’s daily operations.

 The CIFAL Ouagadougou is part of the international network of training centers set up by UNITAR which aims at facilitating the sharing of knowledge and experience and promoting city to city cooperation, especially south-south cooperation.   Established in 2003 in partnership with the city of Ouagadougou and the Urban Community of Lyon / France, its primary purpose was to train elected officials and municipal technical staff on issues faced by West African cities. Since then, the CIFAL Ouagadougou activities have attracted interest and participation from many National Associations of Local Authorities, as well as for other regional development partners. With the support and involvement of its partners, the CIFAL extended its area of action with local actors to reach an even greater geographical scope of participants and expand its capacity development themes.   The inauguration ceremony was attended by many national and international partners among them, government officials, development partners in Burkina Faso, representatives of National Associations of Local Authorities from Sub-Saharan Africa, representatives of the Urban Community of Lyon, representatives of the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) and UNITAR.   The provision of these premises by the municipality of Ouagadougou is, on one hand, the sign of the necessity for capacity building for local governments, and on the other hand that training is a priority investment for local development. This is equally the proof that local governments in the region and local authorities from Burkina Faso in particular have taken ownership of the initiative.  Therefore, in its opening speech, the Mayor of Ouagadougou, Mr. Simon Compaoré, reaffirmed the relevance of the mission of the CIFAL  Ouagadougou in a context of decentralization and poverty alleviation in theses terms: “The CIFAL Ouagadougou, with the support of its partners  will contribute to the recognition of the role of local governments as relevant level of competence in terms of provision of basic services to the populations and therefore of promotion of community development, integrating both a true intervention autonomy and a real concern of governance”.    For more information: www.cifal-ouaga.org.