The Burkina Faso Compact included significant capital investments in infrastructure and building government and organizational capacity. Because MCC compacts are fixed amounts and executed over five years, partner governments must focus on obtaining results while balancing changes to costs and schedules. MCC and the Government of Burkina agreed to make adjustments to compact targets due to changes in estimated costs and project progress, including:
- MCC reduced the size of Dî irrigation scheme sub-activity and transferred funds from other activities to cover the increased costs after receiving bids that were significantly higher than initial estimates in October 2011. MCC reinstated the initial number of hectares, along with an additional 144 hectares, in January 2013, as savings were realized through contingency management and increased visibility into total costs. The $13.5 million for construction of these hectares, 500 in total, was partially funded by the release of almost $6 million in Agriculture Development Project contingencies, money from the Access to Rural Finance loan fund, and the rehabilitation of district markets sub-activity.
- In July 2012, MCC reallocated funding to the Roads Project to cover increased construction costs for two of three of the Primary Roads after bids exceeded the amount initially budgeted within the compact. The additional cost for the two roads was covered primarily by shifting $14.1 million from the Rural Roads Activity. MCC reinstated all lots of the Rural Roads Activity by May 2013 due to effective management of contingencies. There was no net change in the number of kilometers of either primary or rural roads completed.
- MCC terminated the Access to Rural Finance Activity in July 2013 after determining it had not made sufficient progress in achieving project targets. Prior to the termination of the activity, 96 loans valuing $2.8 million had been disbursed to end borrowers. After termination of the activity, approximately $2.2 million from the activity was reallocated to the Water Management and Irrigation Activity. Repayments from these loans support sustained assistance to water user associations managed by the government’s post-compact entity.
The Rural Land Governance Project was broken into two phases to allow MCC to analyze the impact of broad and complicated reforms undertaken in 17 pilot municipalities prior to expanding to an additional 30. In August 2012, MCC notified the Government of Burkina Faso that the project successfully met the conditions for moving to the second phase. Based on lessons from the pilot communes about the time needed to implement activities, the scope of Phase 2 activities was reduced. These changes did not substantially reduce the economic rate of return or indicator targets.