Ouagadougu!

After working at theWorld Bank’s HQ in DC, I finally arrived in Ouagadougu. It took quite a while to get used to the surroundings, but now I feel settled!

The name, Ouagadougu means respect and welcome, and Burkina Faso means country of integrated/honest people in Morae, one of the most commonly used native language in Burkina Faso. My first impression of Ouagadougu is that it has very nice and peaceful people. They are very welcoming to foreigners and willing to help others.

Morning in Ouaga
The city gets busy in the morning. I live in the downtown district of the city, near Ave. Kwame Kruma avenue (Kwame Kruma is an ex-president of Ghana) where many activities are held. I can buy anything from fruit to mobile phones here on the street, where everybody greets each other.

(Grocery store getting busier in the morning)

(View from my office)

Evening in Ouaga
The sun goes very early here. After 6pm, it starts already getting darker and there is almost no street light. It is difficult to walk around during the night before we get used to it. My neighbor, Isa, makes drums during the evening to sell the next day. People get together to watch a TV, also have beers, etc.

(Neighbors gather to waching a TV)

(Wonderful Beer Burkina for summer night)

Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso is a poor, landlocked, sub-Saharan country of 13 million inhabitants. It is bound by Benin, Togo, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire in the south, by Mali in the north and in the west, and by Niger in the east. Burkina Faso has limited natural resources and rainfall, an economy that is strongly dependent on cotton exports, and a vulnerability to natural disasters and regional instability. Burkina Faso has nonetheless achieved real gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates of over 5 percent per year since 1994. Real per capita income has increased 20 percent since 1994. Per capita income was US$430 in 2007 compared to US$590 for low income countries and US$750 for Sub-Saharan African. Poverty incidence decreased from 54 percent in 1998 to about 40 percent in 2007.

Positive trends in social welfare have accelerated, with infant mortality rates falling from 107 per 1,000 live births in 1995 to 97 in 2003. The gross primary school enrollment rate has also risen quickly, from 44 percent in 2000 to 57 percent in 2005. Other social indicators rank at or below the averages for Sub-Saharan Africa: in 2005, literacy rate was 30 percent and life expectancy at birth was 43 years, compared to 35 percent and 46 years for Sub-Saharan Africa.

Burkina Faso was ranked 176th out of 177 countries in the 2007 Human Development Index (HDI), published by the United Nations Development Program.

I am currently working at the World Bank's Burkina Faso team in DC before going to the field office in Ouagadougu, the capital of Burkina Faso. My main roles are working on the export diversification and competitiveness as well as gender equality for this country.