Strengthening Girls’ Rights to Complete their Education Safely and On-Time

This project aims to support access to safe and gender-responsive education for girls and boys between the ages of 6 and 16 by addressing the urgent and growing needs they face in the security challenged northern and eastern regions of Burkina Faso. The project implements the Speed Schools approach an intensive nine-month program which encompasses the first three years of primary school to allow out-of-school children to catch up to their peers and effectively integrate them into the formal education system. This approach works to enable girls and boys to reintegrate into schools when they reopen or allow them to continue their schooling at-level in temporary sites located in more secure parts of the country. Project activities include: (1) conducting sensitization and face-to-face community outreach campaigns on the value of girls’ right to education and protection; (2) providing training to teachers; (3) providing vouchers/cash transfer to households of highly vulnerable internally displaced people (IDPs) with adolescent girls transitioning to post-primary including those with disabilities; and (4) rehabilitating latrines and establishing temporary learning spaces to address safety inclusion and IDP influx according to rapid needs assessments.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved confidence decision-making and resilience of girls and adolescent girls including those with disabilities as well as their families so that they can identify and counteract gender-based barriers to education; (2) improved equitable and coordinated provision of innovative safe quality gender-responsive and evidence-based formal basic education for girls and adolescent girls including those with disabilities affected by insecurity; and (3) increased equitable access to safe secure quality inclusive education and learning for girls and adolescent girls including those with disabilities affected by insecurity.