Burkina Faso

Introduction

This case study looks at a development programme called the ‘Integrated development for the Women of Gnagna Province’. The programme is located in the eastern region of Burkina Faso in 12 rural and isolated villages in the Gnagna province. The Gnagna province is one of the least developed provinces in the country.

What is day-to-day life like for people in Burkina Faso?

The people involved with the development programme in Gnagna are rural subsistence farmers, disabled people and women – the poorest group of people in Burkina Faso. At the start of the project, the people and their families were not able to afford two meals a day, had little or no resources to send their children to school (particularly girls) and had little or no access to healthcare.

Day-to-day life for rural farmers, disabled people and women in Burkina Faso is incredibly hard. In rural society, the workload of women is greater than the workload of men and is focused on subsistence activities such as:

• Looking for drinking water (mainly during the dry season)
• Farming the land
• Educating and catering for the needs of their children
• Household chores like pounding millet, cooking food and cleaning the house
• Managing small income generating activities.

Women in Gnagna tend to work on average about 14 to 17 hours per day.

What is the project about and how does it help improve the lives of people within the community?

Although the project involves rural subsistence farmers, children and disabled people, the target group is specifically women and girls. This is because women and girls are often marginalised within communities in developing countries. Changing conditions for women and girls can lead to a significant positive change to the local community and wider society as a whole.

The project aims to tackle the issues faced by women. It focuses on improving the quality of life and social status of women and girls through practical schemes that generate income and establish small businesses through the availability of credit and training. It also raises awareness about preventive health issues and the importance of primary school education for girls.

Some of the programme’s objectives are listed below:

• Raising awareness of women’s rights issues
• Providing credit to women, creating opportunities for them to generate an income
• Promoting adult literacy and girls’ education
• Improving awareness of health and hygiene
• Improving how natural resources are managed, including the production of crops. This is done through new agricultural activities and techniques including compost, lines of stones, clay cooking and market gardening

In order to achieve these objectives, the programme’s activities include:

• Information, training and awareness raising to empower women, enabling them to participate more fully in public life and to fight for their rights
• Building the capacity of the programme organisation through training, project planning, budgeting and management and developing relationships with other villages and similar organisations
• Income generation and credit provision through
• Vegetable growing, composting and anti-erosion techniques
• Energy efficient stoves
• Use of water filters to improve hygiene
• Money management and simple business planning
• Market gardening
• Training in adult literacy for women and encouraging families to send their daughters to school
• Training on health issues such as reproductive health, fertility and family planning

Because the project has provided villagers with a grain mill and a well, women now have more time to focus on other income generating activities which in turn helps improve the lives of people within the local community. Furthermore, women are acquiring practical skills such as composting and vegetable growing, enabling them to increase their income.

Women now have access to credit facilities and management training, empowering them to set up their own small businesses. This allows women to have more autonomy, which improves their own status within the family and the community as a whole.

Adult literacy and the number of girls attending school have increased. Women can now read and write and perform simple calculations, enabling them to manage their activities in their own language. Because women are receiving information and training on health issues, they are better placed to protect themselves and their families against diseases.

All of these outcomes have improved the general conditions - food, health and the promotion of people’s rights - for families within the Gnagna province. Furthermore, the work has contributed to protecting the local environment.

How does an initiative like the MDG campaign help to improve the lives of people in Burkina Faso?

The project has many links with the Millennium Development Goals:

• It provides income generating activities, improving the revenues of some of the world’s poorest people and therefore contributing to the reduction of poverty (MDG 1)
• It encourages adult and female literacy (MDG 2)
• It raises awareness of women’s health issues, contributing to the reduction of child mortality and the spread of HIV/Aids in the community (MDG 6)
• By introducing and implementing sound agricultural techniques, the programme contributes to building a sustainable environment (MDG 7)

In Burkina Faso as a whole, there is no specific Millennium Development Goals campaign. There is in the Ministry of Economy and Development, however, a section specifically in charge of following up and monitoring the goals in Burkina Faso. The role involves co-ordinating separate activities and gathering statistics and facts relating to healthcare, education, water supplies etc in relation to steps undertaken to meet the goals’ targets.

Glossary

Subsistence farming - Farming the land either for a living or to grow food to support an individual / family.

Rural – living in the country

 

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Woman and child: Andrew Aitchison

 

 

Grinding Millet: Andrew Aitchison