{"id":6848,"date":"2023-11-30T16:42:30","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T16:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kmtraining.org\/interview-with-director-marie-ba-of-the-ouagadougou-partnership\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T13:16:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:16:23","slug":"interview-with-director-marie-ba-of-the-ouagadougou-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmtraining.org\/fr\/interview-with-director-marie-ba-of-the-ouagadougou-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Years: Successes and Challenges of the Ouagadougou Partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A few weeks before the annual meeting of the Ouagadougou Partnership<\/a> (OP) to be held from December 11 to 13 in Abidjan, we interviewed Marie Ba, the director of the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit (OPCU). Ms. Ba is a powerful voice for the well-being of West African communities, especially women and girls, and has a great passion for the cause she defends. In this interview, she shares with us the partnership\u2019s journey. Ms. Ba lifts the veil on the OP’s successes and challenges, 12 years after its founding.
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Aissatou Thioye: <\/b>This is the OP\u2019s 12th year anniversary?<\/span><\/p>\n

Marie Ba: <\/b>Yes, the OP is an initiative we are still very proud of 12 years after its founding because we have succeeded during these 12 years and this success was not obvious in the beginning. In French-speaking West Africa in particular, it is not necessarily the best positioned, but we had the necessary resources and above all the necessary support.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I am often asked what the recipe for the partnership\u2019s success is. For me, it is largely the secretariat, to have allocated the necessary resources for this secretariat and to engage the partnership, so that it ensures our many achievements. I think it’s a question of being able to unite people around a common goal, of having the various stakeholders really believe in this partnership.” \u00a0<\/span><\/i>\u2014Marie Ba<\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Aissatou: <\/b>So<\/span> the successes of the OP have been achieved through the OPCU and its partners?<\/span><\/p>\n

Marie: <\/b>Yes, the OPCU alone cannot achieve its objectives. When we talk about success, I always say, it is not the successes of the OPCU, it is those of the Ouagadougou Partnership. And therefore, to have been able to unite all these stakeholders around the Ouagadougou Partnership who believed in it and that everyone’s achievements were able to contribute and that we were able to magnify these results. 12 years later, there are still many challenges in the sub-region. We have had many achievements on contraceptive prevalence rates, the number of additional users, the quality of services, data and products. But there is still, of course, a lot to do.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We are very proud that it is for Africans, by Africans, who understand the context, because it is unrealistic to want to import a model from one region to another, from one country to another, even between the countries of the Ouagadougou Partnership.” <\/span><\/i>\u2014Marie Ba<\/i><\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

You have a country like Niger, a country like C\u00f4te d’Ivoire, both are at two extremes in terms of values, indicators, social norms…. And to have been able to reconcile, not only the differences, but also everything that brings us together and the commonalities we have between the nine countries, is important.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aissatou: <\/b>You spoke earlier about success in relation to partnerships\u2014can you give us some examples that really struck you?<\/span><\/p>\n

Marie: <\/b>One thing, in terms of partnership, that we are particularly proud of is the very discussion around family planning and contraception which has changed and evolved a lot\u2014having been able to infuse this regional collaboration, but also to see what is being done at the international level. It is very important to keep an eye on what is happening at the global level and be able to adapt it to our region and to our needs. I think the evolution in the discussion around family planning is an excellent thing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Secondly, we have been learning more and more about integrating young people and their needs into the Ouagadougou Partnership and have been able to renew at the right time the various stakeholders. In a region where about 60% of young people are under 24 years of age, we have ensured that they can find themselves in this partnership and not become obsolete. The inclusion and integration of young people, their concern in this partnership, and the focus we have on them, not only as beneficiaries, but as agents of change, is a great point of pride.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t

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Listen to Marie Talk About the Commitment of Young People.<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t
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