Burkina Faso
Building resilience is challenging in Burkina Faso’s complex environment and successful resilience activities can help reduce both poverty and instability.

Overview
Rising insecurity and climatic shocks have caused an unprecedented escalation in humanitarian needs, putting more families at risk of food insecurity. Attacks by armed groups and community conflicts are leading to population movement, making rural populations dependent on subsistence agriculture increasingly vulnerable. The Government of Burkina Faso and the international community are working together to build resilience and improve the country’s ability to withstand shocks.
Complex Risk Environment
The country’s most food insecure regions (in the north and east) have seen a dramatic rise in violent conflict and subsequent population displacement. This can impede access to health services, disrupt social cohesion among communities, and challenge the access and activities of humanitarian and development actors. Such insecurity compounds disruptions from climate change, which is likely to significantly impact the frequency and intensity of droughts, rainfall, and crop pest outbreaks. Increases in average temperatures, rapid population growth, and a youth bulge challenge the capacity of communities to bounce back and prevent life-threatening acute malnutrition.
Resilience Approach
The Government of Burkina Faso is working with the donor community to improve its people’s resilience by incorporating its Country Resilience Priorities into its second five-year National Agricultural Investment Program. Resilience programming in Burkina Faso seeks to address the underlying causes of vulnerability and risk, which lead to a cycle of humanitarian crisis and response whenever a climatic or other shock occurs. It seeks to improve health and nutrition while also strengthening institutions and governance critical to resilience in order to improve natural resource management and mitigation of resource related conflict.
Multi-year, multi-sectoral resilience projects increase sustainable economic well-being through increased agricultural productivity, income diversification, and increased access to markets and financial services. Resilience investments respond to common grievances, such as lack of government services and poor economic opportunities, and address common drivers of instability, such as local conflicts and shock-related population displacements.
Opportunities for Strengthening Resilience
There are many opportunities to strengthen resilience from the local to national levels, including improving access to and management of water and other natural resources; promoting business development and opportunities to engage in growing markets; improving health outcomes; strengthening community and national health systems; strengthening effective governance at all levels; and empowering women and youth to be a force for positive change. An additional new and important focus will be on improving security and accountability.
Featured Resources
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This report documents the resilience analysis of the midline data set collected for the impact evaluation (IE) of the Resilience in the Sahel...
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FAO has been pioneering resilience measurement and analysis with respect to food insecurity through the Resilience Index Measurement and...
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The RISE portfolio aims to strengthen resiliency in communities and governments in selected, somewhat adjoining areas of Burkina Faso and Niger.
Conflict and FragilityGovernanceShock Responsive ProgramsNigerBurkina Faso -
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This evaluation explores how different productive inclusion programs impact the wellbeing and economic stability of safety net beneficiaries in Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal.
GovernanceShock Responsive ProgramsSocial ProtectionNigerBurkina FasoSenegal -
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Join panelists from TANGO International and USAID for a presentation of the key findings from the RISE I (Resilience in the Sahel Enhanced) recurrent monitoring surveys (RMS). The RMS followed a group of RISE I households from August 2018 through April 2019 in both Niger and Burkina Faso to...
EducationNutritionGovernanceDiversify Livelihood RisksBurkina FasoNiger -
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This report documents the analysis of the Recurrent Monitoring Survey (RMS) 20I8-19 data set collected as part of the impact evaluation of the Resilience in the Sahel Enhanced (RISE) program. The overarching goal of the RISE program is to increase the resilience to shocks of chronically...
Conflict and FragilityShock Responsive ProgramsBurkina FasoNiger -
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This report documents the resilience analysis of the midline data set collected for the impact evaluation (IE) of the Resilience in the Sahel Enhanced (RISE) initiative.
Evidence and AnalysisBurkina FasoNiger -
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Households who choose to adopt new agricultural technologies have a limited amount of labor they can invest in making those technologies productive and profitable. As part of a broader randomized controlled trial (RCT) in Burkina Faso, we explored how the adoption of a labor intensive fertilizer...
Human CapitalBurkina Faso -
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The Livelihoods Diversification Analysis (LDA) has two key functions: (1) to inform ongoing and future iterations of resilience programming in Niger, Burkina Faso, and potentially other Sahelian countries, and (2) to contribute more broadly to strategic thinking on holistic programming that...
Diversify Livelihood RisksNigerBurkina Faso -
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This report presents the findings of a Livelihoods Diversification Analysis that aims to inform the development of future programmatic interventions and strategic efforts to promote livelihood diversification in the Sahel by the USAID Sahel Regional Office at USAID/Senegal.
Diversify Livelihood RisksNigerBurkina Faso -
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This working paper is meant to provide information on the strategic and technical approach USAID intends to use for RISE II.
NigerBurkina Faso -
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USAID’s Resilience in the Sahel Enhanced 2 (RISE 2) results framework indicates the results required to achieve the project goal of chronically vulnerable populations in Burkina Faso and Niger, supported by resilient systems, effectively manage shocks and stresses and...
NigerBurkina Faso