Reduce Intercommunal Violence and Reinforce Social Cohesion in Burkina Faso

This project seeks to reduce intercommunal violence and reinforce social cohesion in Burkina Faso’s Centre-Nord and Sahel regions. To reduce the immediate risk of violence and better protect populations the project identifies and supports young men and women leaders from communities in conflict to develop and implement community protection plans in collaboration with formal and informal authorities and security actors. The project also seeks to operationalize the Burkinabe government’s formal conflict prevention and management structures so they can de escalate intercommunal tensions and reinforce social cohesion in cooperation with the young leaders. Project activities include: (1) creating citizen forums; (2) analyzing factors of violence mapping risks and drafting protection plans; (3) facilitating mediation community dialogues participatory theatre and solidarity initiatives; (4) providing training on leadership and conflict transformation and revitalizing conflict prevention and management observatories; and (5) supporting the implementation of the action plans. This 18 month project was developed by Search for Common Ground. The project seeks to provide immediate responses to reduce community violence and protect civilians while helping to reinforce social cohesion and address the root causes of conflicts.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) young leaders and women leaders actively collaborate with formal and informal authorities and security actors to implement inclusive gender sensitive community-protection strategies; (2) the communities particularly young people and various women’s groups have greater access to resources and platforms to carry out initiatives that build trust with authorities and reinforce intra- and intercommunal cohesion; and (3) the village- and departmental-level local observatories of the Observatoire National de Prévention et de Gestion des Conflits Communautaires [national observatory for preventing and managing community conflicts] have the knowledge and support they need to carry out their community conflict prevention duties in an inclusive gender-sensitive and effective manner.