USAID/OTI BURKINA FASO REGIONAL PROGRAM SEMI-ANNUAL REPORT: April 1, 2020 – September 30, 2020

The program targets strategic communities in the Sahel, Nord, Est, and Centre-Est regions of the country. During the reporting period, BFRP implemented activities in 21 communes, including six in the Sahel region, five in the Nord region, seven in the Est region, and three in the Centre-Est region. BFRP refined its strategy in April 2020 to focus on supporting stability by mitigating the destabilizing effects of violence and insecurity. The program shifted its emphasis from building resilience against violent extremism to reinforcing stability in key Burkinabe communities. The new strategy centers on supporting stability by mitigating and containing the impact of violence that threatens to spread instability across the country. The program's four clusters remain in place and have been further defined to help communities survive economically, preserve community institutions, support and empower local leaders, and enable authorities to respond to community needs. The clusters include empowering community leaders, mitigating livelihood disruption and fostering adaptive economic opportunities, revitalizing traditional community mechanisms, and enabling critical local service delivery. Despite the obstacles of COVID, increasing insecurity, and the recent turnover/transition of key BFRP leadership, the program initiated 35 new activities and adapted its programming to the new implementation context. COVID required that 24 activities be placed on hold, but 14 were able to restart after modifications were made to meet COVID guidelines. The remaining ten suspended activities were later rejected or cancelled. Key results during the reporting period include leaders understanding terrorist threats and initiating actions. In the Sahel region, local leaders reported improvements in their knowledge of terrorism and of the local security context after BFRP-provided training sessions and workshops. This led to the development of Community Protection Plans, which will guide local leaders to identify and implement initiatives and actions to improve security in their communities. In the Nord region, BFRP increased the capacity of 40 religious leaders in one commune on conflict-sensitive communication, providing them with knowledge and skills for more effective engagement and peacebuilding in their communities. In the same commune, BFRP trained 61 local elected leaders on communication and conflict management, enabling them to better understand and adapt to the deteriorating security context. In the Est region, BFRP supported initiatives that increased local leaders' knowledge and understanding of violent extremism and the roles and actions required to mitigate its effects. For example, in Fada, BFRP improved local leaders' capacity to identify and initiate activities that foster stability by training 73 leaders on violent extremism and specific topics such as key factors that can lead to extremism and radicalization, constraints and challenges to peacebuilding, and the role and place of customary and community leaders in the promotion of the culture of peace. Alternative economic solutions were also piloted, adapted, and shared. To address the lack of viable economic opportunities due to insecurity in the region, BFRP trained 79 young people in the Nord region in various livestock and agricultural practices. These include animal husbandry and fattening techniques for small ruminants; improved breeding techniques for local poultry; gardening; and production, storage, and processing techniques for non-timber forest products and vegetables. In the same commune, 20 young people received training on cell phone repair, developing an economic livelihood alternative to beneficiaries.