Project profile — Reducing child, early and forced marriage in Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone

• Burkina Faso (50.00%)
• Sierra Leone (50.00%)

• Population policy and administrative management:
Population policy and administrative management (13010) (55.00%)
Reproductive health care (13020) (19.00%)
Family planning (13030) (26.00%)

• Gender equality (principal objective)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (significant objective)
• Disability (not targeted)
• Nutrition (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (not targeted)
• Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)
• Youth Issues (significant objective)

The project aims to reduce the prevalence of child early and forced marriage (CEFM) in Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone. It works to reduce CEFM by enabling girls to decide their own futures and fulfill their equal human rights. Project activities include: (1) establishing/refurbishing physical safe spaces in existing community structures and equipping them with age-appropriate materials; (2) identifying female and male gender equality (GE) community champions using a participatory approach; and (3) conducting dialogue workshops between trained Civil Society organizations (CSOs) and government officials to understand the issues and challenges in addressing CEFM. It is expected the project reaches over 25,900 direct beneficiaries (11,400 girls, 6,700 boys, 3,800 women, 4,000 men) in the Western Area Rural and the Kailahun Districts of Sierra Leone, and the Cascades and Hauts-Bassins regions of Burkina Faso. Key groups include girls, boys, women, men, traditional and religious leaders, women- and girl-led community groups, Civil Society organizations, service providers, sub-national, national, and regional government stakeholders.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) empowered adolescent girls and boys between the ages of 12 and 17, including those most marginalized, are able to make informed decisions about marriage and pregnancy; (2) improved social environment for adolescent girls and boys between the ages of 12 and 17, including those most marginalized, to make their own decisions around marriage and pregnancy; and (3) strengthened institutional environment for accelerated action on GE and CEFM prevention.

Results achieved at the end of the project (March 2024) include: (1) established 30 safe spaces in Burkina Faso and 60 in Sierra Leone for training in and out of school children in positive life skills, gender norms and sexual and reproductive health (SRH); (2) trained 215 facilitators (116 women and 99 men), reached 9,103 adolescent girls of ages 10 to 18 years and 6,248 adolescent boys of ages 10 to 18 years; (3) trained 5,530 out-of-school youth, including married adolescent girls and boys (2,889), on financial literacy through participation in village savings and loans associations (VSLAs). VSLAs contributed to reducing gender-based violence incidents, better decision-making on marriage and family planning and improved household chore distribution; (4) trained 1,080 gender equality champions (90 women and 990 men), also delivered programs to promote gender equality, and increased agency of adolescent girls, women (23,992) and men (20,005) caregivers of adolescents; (5) trained health and protection service providers (259 women and 225 men) on gender equality responsive and adolescent friendly service delivery; and (6) through 26 workshops, researchers disseminated results of a study on gender responsiveness of approaches to influence social and gender norms around child early and forced marriage (CEFM) to government officials and community members, including adolescents (615 girls and 576 boys) to accelerate political commitments to prevent CEFM. The project experienced the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing inflation, food insecurity, and the threat of harmful coping mechanisms of adolescent girls and boys. Conflict and political upheaval in Burkina Faso also affected the project.

• Proactive disclosure