Burkina Faso

In view of the outcome of the negotiations between the Burkina Faso transitional authorities and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Luxembourg’s Development Cooperation adopted a transition strategy in July 2022, allowing the continuous implementation of bilateral and multilateral programmes, humanitarian aid and support for Luxembourgish NGOs.

The implementation of Luxembourg’s bilateral cooperation programmes continued in 2023 in the priority sectors identified in the transition strategy.

• In the first, education, technical and vocational training and employability, this includes: support for education and for technical and vocational training, a sector that has in the past benefited from significant support from Luxembourg’s Development Cooperation, has been geared in 2023 more towards employability in the labour market, as well as towards the educational needs of populations weakened by the conflict (education in emergencies), particularly through the construction of mobile and pre-fabricated classrooms. In this emergency context, LuxDev has entered into a partnership with Aide internationale de la Croix-Rouge luxembourgeoise (AICRL), which supports the Burkinabè Red Cross to distribute school kits in remote areas to which LuxDev no longer has direct access, as well as with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to equip school canteens;

• The second priority sector is support for climate governance and the sustainable management of natural resources to combat climate change. The long-standing support in these sectors continued in 2023, but focused more on tackling climate change and creating green jobs, ensuring fair, inclusive and sustainable access to natural resources in order to reduce inequalities and diminish the sources of tension linked to the deterioration of the environment.

Although the coverage of its interventions remains national, the area of intervention in which Luxembourg’s Development Cooperation was able to operate effectively through LuxDev staff was mainly limited to the triangle between Koudougou, Dedougou and Bobo-Dioulasso and the Ouagadougou region.

The other regions are still served through delegations to national authorities, humanitarian actors, multilateral agencies and NGOs.

Multilaterally, Luxembourg’s Development Cooperation launched a new project to support the economic and climate resilience of women and young people, implemented by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) with a total financial envelope of EUR 5 million (2023-2025). The project will be implemented in four regions (Boucle du Mouhoun, Hauts-Bassins, Cascades and Centre-Sud) identified through a regional approach based on political, productive, social, spatial and security criteria. The aims of the project are to increase the professionalisation of the umbrella organisations for non-timber forest products (especially honey, shea, cashew, néré and silk) and the entrepreneurial skills of the beneficiaries (e.g. the organisational, technical and productive capacities of women and young people) and to promote financial education and financing (creation of savings groups, collection of local savings, with a preference for digital solutions, offered by microfinance institutes geared to the needs of women and young people).

In view of the evolving security and humanitarian situation in Burkina Faso, in 2023 Luxembourg continued to considerably increase its support for humanitarian aid, by contributing almost EUR 4 million to humanitarian interventions implemented by international, multilateral and Luxembourgish humanitarian organisations. The humanitarian situation is deteriorating very rapidly: 10% of the population is currently internally displaced and 50,000 people are suffering from famine, a first in the country’s history. It should also be noted that Luxembourg’s Development Cooperation incorporates the humanitarian element into its bilateral and multilateral projects, as part of the approach based on the nexus between humanitarian action, development and peace.

In 2023, 15 Luxembourgish NGOs were active in Burkina Faso, and continued to implement their projects through their local partners, despite the political and security crisis. As part of the transition strategy, an indicative financial envelope of EUR 4 million per year is planned for Luxembourgish NGOs in Burkina Faso.