On Friday, February 02, 2024, a meeting was held at the offices of the NGO Solidar Suisse in Burkina Faso, bringing together the technical team of the project “Strengthening Community Resilience in Agroforestry Households in the North, Boucle du Mouhoun and Centre-North Regions of Burkina Faso (RESICOM)”, the beneficiaries and the financial partner, the Royal Danish Embassy in Burkina Faso. The meeting provided an opportunity to demonstrate the progress made by the RESICOM project in the field, by presenting some of its achievements.
Prevented from making field visits to the project’s insecure areas of intervention, the team from the donor (Royal Danish Embassy in Burkina Faso) was able to discover the project’s various achievements through a film screening, a mini-fair and testimonials from the beneficiaries invited to the meeting.
Participants were able to discover the project’s mid-term achievements through the projection of a film.
Launched in July 2021 for a period of 54 months, the RESICOM project aims to. “Contribute to the sustainable strengthening of the resilience of agroforestry households, including that of IDPs, affected by the security crisis and climate change in the Nord, Boucle du Mouhoun and Centre Nord regions.”. After more than 02 years of implementation, some positive results have already been achieved:
- 4290 women from vulnerable households, including 261 IDPs, each receiving 2 sheep, a bag of cattle feed and a lickstone, are practicing sheep fattening as their main income-generating activity (IGA);
- 4000 young people and women trained and equipped to practice agroforestry trades (sheep fattening, market gardening and seedling production);
- 1302 women, including 100 IDPs, have been trained to adopt good ANJE practices through the preparation of enriched infant porridge based on local foods for children;
- 750 women equipped with kits carry out previously identified income-generating activities (sale of doughnuts, cakes, porridge, etc.);
- 635 ha of degraded land restored using CES/DRS techniques (Zaï, stone cordons and half-moons) and 565 ha mechanically reclaimed using the delfino plough;
- 186 ha of lowlands developed, 85% of which will be sown during the 2023 wet season, benefiting 1,272 farmers including 915 women, etc.
The Danish Ambassador to Burkina Faso, Mr Kristian KIRKEGAARD EDINGER, expressed his satisfaction with the results presented. In his view, the RESICOM project’s “triple NEXUS” intervention approach, which focuses on early recovery activities (ANJE, sheep fattening, IGAs, etc.), development (development of rice-growing lowlands, market-gardening schemes, restoration of degraded land, etc.) and social cohesion (forum theater, Community Day, etc.), is well suited to the country’s current context and contributes to the resilience of vulnerable households.
As for the beneficiaries, they took the opportunity to express their gratitude to the donor who, through the RESICOM project, enables them to benefit from multiple activities that strengthen their livelihoods in the short, medium and long term.
As a reminder, the RESICOM project is funded by the Royal Danish Embassy in Burkina Faso and implemented by the Solidar Suisse Consortium, SOS SAHEL International Burkina Faso; in collaboration with local partners (#OCADES DEDOUGOU for the Boucle du Mouhoun region, FEPAB Yatenga for the Northern region and the Wendkouni Association for the Centre Nord region), for the period 2021-2025.
The project’s areas of intervention are :
- Early recovery and economic empowerment of vulnerable people;
- Strengthening the livelihoods of vulnerable communities;
- Strengthening peace and social cohesion.
The total cost of the project is 8,589,325,199FCFA.
The meeting ended with a family photo between the team from the Danish Embassy in Burkina Faso and the beneficiaries of the RESICOM project.
