USAID/OTI Burkina Faso Regional Program Semi-Annual Report: April 1–September 30, 2019

The program targets 12 communes, eight in the Sahel region and four in the Nord region, to address three problem sets: disruption of livelihoods, weak response from the state, and social fragmentation. Focused on these problem sets following the program's Rolling Assessment in March, BFRP has targeted activity programming with more precision toward its program goal. During the reporting period, BFRP developed activities in partnership with 39 grantees, including civil society organizations, local authorities, and community organizations. Key results include local leaders initiating actions, engaging and assessing traditional justice mechanisms, and communities being in open discussion about exclusion and stigmatization. Many of the 149 religious and customary leaders trained undertook actions in their communities, such as modifying sermons to encourage non-violent discussion techniques and describing non-violent conflict resolution methods. Sport and cultural activities helped gather more than 2,000 people for raising awareness on social cohesion and the need for ethnic groups to live peacefully together. The program also focused on women's contribution to countering violent extremism. About 675 female community representatives across the Nord and Sahel regions were trained in negotiation and persuasion techniques, enabling them to converse with their children, parents, and friends about peaceful coexistence, family cohesion, and mutual respect. These training sessions also helped women leaders develop strategies for helping their children and family members rebuff recruitment efforts from violent extremist organizations. Complementary activities focused on economic workarounds for women and youth are being implemented as a result of the women trained under the initial activities noting that they need to offer alternatives to the financial incentives often used by VEOs to entice new recruits. Burkina Faso's national security context has continued to deteriorate during the reporting period, with repeated attacks in the Sahel, Nord, and Est regions. The Government launched two major military operations to counter these growing threats: "Operation Otapuanu" that covered the Est region and "Operation Ndofou" that covered the Sahel, Centre-Nord, and Nord regions. Despite these efforts, the security situation remains challenging, with terrorist activities reported in other regions such as Centre Nord, Boucle du Mouhoun, Cascades, Sud-Ouest, and Centre-Est. The program's activities have provided communities with guidance and mechanisms for expression on sensitive topics such as stigma and social exclusion. Follow-up interviews and focus groups with beneficiaries from this programming area noted that social divisions are currently superficial in BFRP target communes, highlighting an opportunity to maximize activity impact. The program's focus on local leaders, women, and community engagement has contributed to the success of these activities, with many leaders and local populations openly opposing the actions of violent extremist organizations.