A landlocked country in East Africa, Burundi is a low-income economy, with 80% of the population employed in the agricultural sector. Located in the Great Lakes region, Burundi is surrounded by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and bordered by Lake Tanganyika to the southwest. With a population of 12.5 million people (2021), 50.6% of whom are women and 41.5% young people under 15, Burundi is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with a density ratio of 442 people per square kilometer (2020 population projection).
Burundi has made significant progress in terms of the quality of and access to education. Since the introduction of free primary education in 2005, the Gross Enrollment Rate in primary education reached 118% during the 2021/2022 school year without significant variation between provinces, gender, or level of income.
Political Context
President Evariste Ndayishimiye was elected in 2020 for a seven-year term of office. The ruling party, CNDD-FDD, has dominated the political scene since 2005, with a large majority in the National Assembly (87 out of 123 seats) and the Senate (38 out of 39 seats).
The main objective of the National Development Plan (NDP) 2018-2027, which provides a socioeconomic diagnostic of the country, is to structurally transform Burundian economy, for robust, sustainable, resilient, and inclusive growth, creating decent jobs for all and leading to improved social welfare. The National Peacebuilding Program was developed in 2020 to operationalize the NDP. This program serves as a reference for all intervention strategies and actions aimed at promoting economic growth, community recovery, reintegration, and sustainable and inclusive resettlement for displaced persons in Burundi.
Socioeconomic Background
Burundi has experienced a difficult economic situation in recent years, which has been marked by macroeconomic imbalances. To compensate for the loss of external resources, there has been an increase in domestic resource mobilization, but this has not been sufficient to meet a continuously rising social demand, driven by sustained population growth. Recent shocks (COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine) have interrupted a still fragile economic recovery and intensified macroeconomic imbalances. In 2022, economic growth slowed to 1.8% from 3.1% in 2021, caused by a modest performance of the industry and service sectors. However, agricultural production contracted slightly due to delayed rainfall and fertilizer distribution. The headline inflation rate reached 18.8% in 2022 and may remain high in 2023 due to the effects of higher food and oil prices, caused by the war in Ukraine, on the global economy.
The fiscal deficit increased from 4.6% of GDP in 2021 to 11.5% in 2022, driven by higher spending for grants, transfers, and investment while revenues declined slightly.
COVID-19
Through an additional financing from the COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Project, Burundi gained access to the Johnson and Johnson vaccine through the AVAT initiative. Following a national rollout plan for the COVID-19 vaccine, the vaccination campaign began on October 18, 2021. Currently, the Ministry of Health has decided to integrate COVID-19 vaccine into routine immunization and at least one vaccination site has been established in all 49 districts of the country. As part of epidemic/pandemic preparedness and response, the project helped support Burundi in preparing for the threat of the Ebola virus that raged in Uganda from September 2022 to January 2023. The project is also supporting the fight against the cholera epidemic that has been underway in Burundi since January 2023.
Last Updated: Mar 28, 2023
