This article discusses the ten-year plan for the development of basic education in Burkina Faso. Burkina Faso has to meet a major challenge, which consists of reducing poverty among the population, reducing exposure to crises of all kinds, and reducing inequality between regions and between different socio-economic sectors. In order to achieve this, the poverty reduction strategy, as outlined in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP), aims to strike a balance between the need for structural reforms and the stimulation of the economy, in order to increase the income of the poor and transfers to the most underprivileged. The Ten-Year Basic Education Development Plan (PDDEB), which is intended to deal with the educational aspects of the PRSP, is consistent with the latter insofar as the prime objectives of the PDDEB are to raise the general level of education of the population, especially in rural areas, to improve the institutional capacities of the sector, to reduce inequalities between men and women and between regions, and to encourage decentralization and deconcentration in the sector. This article discusses Burkina Faso's current educational policy, as well as the problems of the basic education system and measures required. This article talks about the joint mission that Burkina Faso received in 2000, which was to deal with the funding aspects of the PDDEB programme. (Contains 3 notes.)