Building Resilience to the Impacts of Climate Change and COVID-19

This project aims to strengthen the resilience of agro-sylvo-pastoral communities in the Boucle du Mouhoun region once known as “the breadbasket of Burkina Faso.” The region now struggles to play that role because of soil forest and water resource degradation. In Burkina Faso against a backdrop that already includes climate security and humanitarian shocks the COVID-19 pandemic is having a negative impact on all activity sectors. The project focuses on greater empowerment through the mastery of practices and measures to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 and climate change. The project activities include: (1) developing and broadcasting radio shows television spots and microprograms on COVID-19 in local languages; (2) educating and training technical partners on COVID-19’s impact on various types of activities notably the new constraints on women and youth who will be trained on measures to prevent and mitigate the illness; (3) boosting households’ livelihoods by restoring 500 ha of land for agro-pastoral production; (4) enhancing 50 ha of rice-growing lowlands in support of women and youth; and (5) creating rehabilitating and securing 25 ha of nature conservation areas.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) promote gender-sensitive best practices for adapting to climate variability and climate change that support women and youth; (2) improve and diversify the livelihoods of agro-pastoral households and adapt them to climate change in an inclusive and equitable manner; (3) strengthen governance for the climate resilience of agro-sylvo-pastoral communities in the project’s coverage area (Boucle du Mouhoun region); and (4) strengthen the leadership of women and youth by getting them involved in implementing the COVID-19 response with the agro-sylvo-pastoral sector’s local structures.