Urban Programming in Burkina Faso: World Vision supports vulnerable people in peri-urban areas

On 14 February 2024, World Vision and its partners officially launched an urban programming approach in Burkina Faso to promote fairer, more inclusive cities where children thrive.

Between 2024 and 2026, World Vision aims to impact the lives of 500,000 people, including 258,050 girls and boys, by addressing water, hygiene and sanitation issues (in schools, health centres and homes in remote areas) and improving the sustainable livelihoods and life skills of 20,000 people in urban areas.

The launch workshop brought together all potential implementing partners and community representatives. Participants were introduced to World Vision's standards-based urban programming approach. According to the World Vision West Africa's Regional Leader who was visiting Burkina Faso, the aim of this multi-sectoral approach is "to promote just and inclusive cities by improving the quality of life of urban communities and strengthening the positive contributions of urbanization, while mitigating the negative effects on communities' basic needs and livelihoods".

Indeed, poverty is more marked in urban than in rural areas, with children living in difficult, unhealthy and dangerous conditions. They have no access to education or viable services and no employment opportunities in adulthood, according to studies carried out by the National Institute of Statistics and Demography on poverty and household living conditions in Burkina Faso.

To give these children and their families the means to realize their full potential, World Vision plans to mobilize a $10 million budget with partners for the period 2024-2026.

The representative of the Ministry of Solidarity, Humanitarian Action, National Reconciliation, Gender and Family, who officially launched the project's activities, declared that : "it is with satisfaction that he welcomes World Vision's Urban Progamming approach, because the various interventions planned will enable to reach more vulnerable people in urban and peri-urban areas, and to meet their various needs in terms of health, access to water, income and to multiply job creation opportunities for young people and women".

For the pilot projects, with an initial budget of $1.5 million, some 32,000 people, including 20,000 girls and boys, will be directly impacted by the activities in the communes of Ouagadougou and Boromo.

To mark the effective start of activities, World Vision distributed Hygiene and Dignity kits to vulnerable internally displaced people (IDPs) in Ouagadougou's arrondissement 4. A total of 300 households (including 187 female-headed households) from Tanghin, Toudoubweogo, Goundrin and Sakoula received hygiene kits (jerrycans, buckets, soap, cooking pots for children, kettles, etc.) and dignity kits for women. On behalf of his community, the Lorou chief thanked World Vision for this gesture of solidarity towards the most vulnerable.

By Noelie Wendpanga Sawadogo, Country Communication Specialist.