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

• Burkina Faso (100.00%)

• Education, Level Unspecified: Education policy and administrative management (11110) (5.00%)
• Primary education:
Primary education (11220) (56.00%)
Basic life skills for youth (11231) (7.00%)
• Education: Lower secondary education (11260) (9.00%)
• Water And Sanitation: Basic sanitation (14032) (11.00%)
• Government And Civil Society, General: Ending violence against women and girls (15180) (12.00%)

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

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.

Results achieved as of March 2023 include: (1) transferred to the formal school system, because of the project's actions, 3,858 out of 4,4640 students from regions affected by insecurity, including 1,967 girls out of 2,360. This gives an average return rate of 83%; (2) trained 264 community actors, including 95 women, to promote girls' access to inclusive, quality education in conflict-affected areas; (3) trained 369 women mentors and sponsors on girls' right to education and life skills, and on empowering girls in their neighbourhoods, applying gender-transformative approaches. This training also covered the case of children living with disabilities, menstrual hygiene management, and early and forced marriages; and (4) 2,590 girls and teenagers benefited from take-home food rations.

• Proactive disclosure
• Related activities: Strengthening Girls’ Rights to Complete their Education Safely and On-Time COVID