Online Registration for Post-Baccalaureate and Baccalaureate Competitions (BF0004)

What is the public issue for which the commitment is made to address?: The infatuation of Burkina Faso citizens with direct competitions of public administration leads, each year, to very long queues, making submission conditions hard both for candidates and receiving officers. The dispersal of file submission sites imposes long distances to candidates who want to apply for many competitions. People with a disability are the more disadvantaged by the situation. It is in the light of all these difficulties that the government of Burkina Faso considered that the setting up of a platform enabling online registrations of candidates to direct competitions of public administration was in 2015 an alternative. The registration platform « e-Competition » accessible at « http://www.econcours.bf » enabled the registration to 18 competitions in 2017 out of more than a hundred. The assessment of the implementation pointed out an inadequacy of the mechanism for online registration. This situation is caused on the one hand by an inadequacy of financial resources and on the other hand by a lack of dematerialization of public administration.; What is the commitment?: take : further relieve candidates queuing each year to submit their files so as to apply for decent jobs in dignified conditions Overall objective: improving the quality of public administration by strengthening the access to users. Expected results: online registration for all post-baccalaureate competitions of public administration is at least systematized by 50%; How will this commitment contribute towards addressing the public issue?: This commitment will enable : • To improve at the technical level the registration platform « eCompetitions » accessible at « http://www.econcours.bf » by making its use more convivial and easier and by raising the awareness of candidates to rely on it ; • To overcome the poor quality of the pass band in Burkina Faso by combining various strategies like SMS, internet, social networks • To facilitate accessibility to competition operations for potential candidates irrespective of the place, by saving their time and money. Steps : • Upgrading the platform • Raising the awareness of candidates • Choosing Cyber in some regions and training their managers in« how to register online»; Why this commitment is relevant in terms of the PGO values?: This commitment is appropriate because : • It improves the access to public service and enables a share and a collection of quality pieces of information; • it encourages the involvement of citizens through the publication of the number and type of competitions, centers of examination and the periods of tests; • it provides convincing data to remind the State of its obligations in terms of setting up an environment conducive to job creation; • it will contribute to increase digital culture in Burkina Faso.; Additional details: Connection with line 1 of PNDES • Connection with public administration modernization ten year strategic plan. • Connection with the Objectives for sustainable development (ODD 16).

4. Systematize online registration of all the competitions of public administration for post-baccalaureate and at least 50% of baccalaureate level competitions

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

“Systematize online registration of all the competitions of public administration for post-baccalaureate and at least 50% of baccalaureate level competitions”

Stake: further relieve candidates queuing each year to submit their files so as to apply for decent jobs in dignified conditions.

Overall objective: improving the quality of public administration by strengthening the access to users.

Expected results: online registration for all post-baccalaureate competitions of public administration is at least systematized by 50%

Milestones/Deliverables/Activities:

Drafting the specifications of the registration platform upgrading

Upgrading actually the registration platform

Start Date:  November 2017                                                                                     End Date:  June 2019

Action Plan is available here

Context and Objectives

This commitment addresses the difficulties for citizens in submitting applications to job vacancies within the public administration. The number of available jobs is smaller than the number of interested candidates. There were about 1.3 million candidates for 6,668 vacancies within the administration for the year 2018, and 900,000 candidates for 11,096 vacancies in 2017. [28] The government’s system for processing applications–a ticket given to each applicant–cannot handle the great influx of applicants, making the process lengthy and cumbersome. [29] Applicants were forced to queue for long hours just to apply for a job, and in some cases, more than 24 hours in the city of Ouagadougou. [30] Therefore, the system not only prevents citizens from applying, but it also hinders officials’ management of the applications. [31] The geographic dispersion of the application centers imposes mobilization burdens for applicants wishing to apply for multiple positions. [32]

To that end, the commitment seeks to improve the quality of public administration by better facilitating the users’ access to the job application process. The commitment will develop an online registration for all post-baccalaureate vacancies in public administration and ensure that 50% of positions are published online.

By implementing an online job application system, the government expects to increase citizens’ access to applications for jobs within the public administration. The government will draft terms of service to upgrade the registration platform and then upgrade the registration platform effectively.

The action plan claims the commitment is relevant to the OGP value of civic participation in that publishing information on job vacancies and application centers will encourage public participation. [33] Yet, the activities do not say how the government will equip citizens to submit applications through the online platform. Activities aim at facilitating job applications through the effective upgrade of an online platform, which will improve access to information. The action plan claims the commitment is relevant to the OGP value of public accountability. By publishing statistics, the government will be reminded of its obligation to create job opportunities. [34] However, the activities make no reference to how the government will be more accountable to their citizens regarding the use of online registration or how the government will ensure that this tool will be used to guarantee a fair recruitment process.

As written in the action plan, some of the activities and results are specific enough to be verifiable (e.g., whether or not the government wrote terms of reference to upgrade the registration platform). It is also possible to verify that the online registration for all post-baccalaureate vacancies is available. While the commitment states that at least 50% of the online registration should be systematized, it remains unclear if this percentage is derived from the total number of available vacancies.

If implemented as written, the government will improve access to careers within the public administration by building an online application system. However, this scope is limited by the low level of internet coverage in the country, plus the fact that no specific activities are aimed at securing internet access for applicants. Therefore, the potential impact of this commitment may be coded as none. According to a report by Agence Ecofin, as of 28 January 2017, only 10.2% of citizens had internet access. [35] The country ranks 34^th out of 54 countries in Africa in internet access [36]. This means that approximately 2 million people (1,900,600) have access to the internet, out of more than 16 million inhabitants according to the 2010 population census. [37] If the online application system is to fully replace the current application system, which is also not explicitly mentioned in this commitment, this may actually cause a regression of the current status of this problem.

The commitment does not include non-internet alternatives for submitting job applications. While the goal is to help citizens have better access to job applications through an online application system, the commitment does not describe any strategies to ensure that candidates will have internet access to submit the applications. The overall objective is expressed in terms of improving quality of service; however, metrics for measuring quality (for instance, time for processing online applications) or the number of online applicants covered are not explicitly mentioned. Therefore, the overall objective seems difficult to track and verify.

Next steps

1. Although this commitment can be used as a tool to support the government’s public policy objectives, it is not relevant to OGP values, and should not be necessarily be included in future action plans.
2. Include accountability measures and encourage civic participation to support implementing the online job application system. For instance, include activities that guarantee the government will adopt a protocol for data security, or strategies to encourage applications from all citizens.
3. Improve internet coverage while developing the online registration and application system, given a major binding constraint for this commitment is the country’s current difficulties in providing internet coverage.
4. Monitor applications by region, time of year, gender, age, and include a user satisfaction survey to detect bottlenecks in the application process.
5. Adjust the activity language to include the specifics for the terms of reference for upgrading the registration platform.