Burkina Faso

Project “Teng-Koglogo" Natural resource management capacity building

Project overview

The project is designed to reinforce the capacities of twelve villages in the Province of Bazèga to effectively manage and enhance their natural and water resources in order to reduce poverty. The project, implemented in cooperation with ADRA Burkina Faso, will improve the availability and access to water resources and improve the management of them.

The main activities include the strengthening or installation of water management committees, deepening of 30 wells, repair of 15 bore-holes, construction of 9 new wells, construction of 2 new bore-holes, and construction of 3 barrages/dams. The project will also train local communities in improved management of natural resources, and empower them to carry out key environmental restoration and protection actions. ADRA aims to train farmers in organic compost production (“nature assisted regeneration”) and help to install over 500 composting pits. ADRA is planning to install 12 nurseries with 41,500 plants planted for reforestation and train 360 women in the production of fuel efficient wood-burning stoves.

While the whole community will benefit from improved water and natural resource management, among the main beneficiaries will be women, who bear many of the burdens associated with natural resource management. Improved access to drinking water, water for animals and reduced use of wood for cooking through fuel efficient stoves will give women more time for income generating activities, to meet the needs of family members, or their own welfare and leisure. An additional social benefit will be to free up young girls from the daily drudgery of water collection and house chores permitting them to attend school.

Country overview

Ranked 175 of 177 countries according to the UN Human Development Index in 2005, Burkina Faso is overwhelmingly rural with nearly 90% of the population dependent on agriculture as the primary source of income. Since 1973, drought has become an almost permanent feature of the landscape, with knock-on effects of rural exodus, and food shortages or famine. The proportion of the people living below the poverty line (126 Euro per year) in Burkina Faso is 45%. More than 56% of the rural population live below the poverty threshold (INSD 2003 poverty profile). In this largely rural, landlocked and resource-poor country, the fundamental causes of poverty are environmental/climatic, including low rainfall and the poverty of the soils. With more than half the population under the age of 15, and a growth rate of 2,7% per year, there is rising pressure on land, water, and other natural resources.