Programme description

Title: Human rights / Sexual health, Burkina Faso
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Burkina Faso
Lead executing agency: Ministère de l'Economie et des Finances
Overall term: 2004 to 2015

Context

Fast population growth, youth unemployment, child emigration for work, child trafficking and, last not least, the HIV/AIDS epidemic are basic problems for Burkina Faso’s development. Women and young people are at a particular disadvantage as they are not adequately involved in political and social decision-making processes and are often subjected to discrimination and human rights abuses. The gender equality enshrined in the constitution and the legislation for the protection of women, young people and children are still far from being enforced in social reality. Women’s economic opportunities, especially access to land, are limited, particularly in rural areas.

Female genital mutilation, forced marriage and domestic violence are widespread. The practice of female genital mutilation is declining only slowly, although it has been prohibited for 15 years. In 2003, more than three-quarters of women over 15 years of age were circumcised. At 18, nearly half of young women are mothers. These early pregnancies are rarely planned. They are the result of forced and child marriages, sexual violence or simply a lack of information. The number of abortions – kept secret as they are illegal – is correspondingly high. Discrimination against women and girls, which has its roots in tradition, provides a breeding ground for the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In 2003, young women of between 20 and 24 years of age were more than three times more likely to be infected with HIV than their male counterparts.

Only around 16 % of women over the age of 15 can read and write, which falls to about seven per cent in rural areas (2006). Five per cent of children aged between six and 16 live away from their parents as emigrant labourers. In Côte d‘Ivoire alone, more than 60,000 children from Burkina Faso under the age of 15, most of them boys, are involved in some kind of income-producing activity. The number of children, mostly girls, who have been ‘procured’ for urban centres, is put at 80,000. These girls are often exploited, not only economically, but also sexually.

Objective

Women, men and young people know their rights and opportunities and are able to demand and exercise these rights confidently for sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention, to protect themselves against discrimination and practices that contravene human rights, such as female genital mutilation and the worst forms of child labour and child trafficking.

Approach

The programme advises and assists ministries and government agencies, civil society organisations, for example village women’s associations, as well as those personally affected. Key areas are:

• the sexual and reproductive health of young people, including HIV/AIDS prevention
• family planning and population policy
• promoting women’s rights
• protecting girls and women against violence, especially female genital mutilation (FGM), which contravenes human rights
• promotion of children’s rights and combating the worst forms of child labour and child trafficking.

Emphasis is placed on educating the population using appropriate forms of communication for specific target groups, including theatre groups or film shows with follow-up discussions in the villages, as well as audiovisual media in the respective local languages. The project supports other associations that are involved its various areas of intervention. It continually supervises and monitors all activities to assess their effects and to adjust them if necessary.

Innovative approaches developed and tested by the programme are included in the government’s Action Programmes with a view to their wider dissemination. In cooperation with partner ministries, teaching modules against circumcision have been developed and tested for primary and secondary schools. The modules are included in teacher training by the two ministries of education. Their integration into the national curricula is under preparation.

State and community service providers benefit from the project inputs, and in so doing improve the quality of their services. NGOs and village associations enjoy a greater scope for action, and the improved quality of what they offer leads to an increase in demand. The programme’s work with women, men and young people also contributes to a quantitative and qualitative change in demand. People approach the state services with greater awareness and self-confidence, and they demand quality. New service providers are developing at local level, which pursue constructive competition with those that already exist.

Results achieved so far

Women benefit particularly from the support and advisory services the programme offers.

• Not only do women allow their children to attend school, they also reject and prevent the circumcision of their daughters. They protect their children from the worst forms of child labour and from child trafficking.
• The women adopt modern family planning methods and protect themselves and their partners against HIV/AIDS.
• They know and demand their legal rights. They assert their claim to the use of arable land, rights of inheritance and their right to co-determination in important family matters. They also seek recourse in their rights as an effective prevention of violence within marriage.

Women’s social position and self-confidence are strengthened as a result of these changes in behaviour. Strengthening the social position of women and young people also increases the social competence and capacity for change among village communities, associations of civil society and state structures and services.

Other measurable effects of the programme for human rights and sexual health:

• In communities where the topic of female circumcision has been included in their school curriculum, there is now a majority opposed to the tradition and in favour of criminal prosecution of the offenders. Better educated pupils prevent circumcision by informing the authorities about any suspicions they may have. Circumcision of girls is generally declining.
• The use of modern forms of contraception is increasing steadily. In the eastern region, their use has increased by two-thirds in the last three years, from 4.4 to 7.3 %, and in the programme’s focal villages to as much as more than 24 %. In the south-western region, the use of modern contraceptives rose during the same period from 11.8 to 14.5 % and in the focal villages to as much as 23 %.
• Young people are increasingly making use of the advice centres for sexual and reproductive health. These have been made more attractive as part of the programme.
• Education about child labour and child trafficking is beginning to bear fruit. In the focal villages, people are increasingly recognising the difference between work that integrates people into society and exploitative work. People in positions of responsibility with goldmines and cotton cultivation, which traditionally make use of child labour, have, with support from the programme, developed codes of conduct to prevent arduous and harmful child labour. Public transport sector workers have begun collectively raising their vigilance towards child traffickers.
• Nationwide, the percentage of girls' school enrolment rose by 64 % between the school years 2002/03 and 2008/09. In the south-western region this figure was 79 % and in the eastern region as much as 123 %. The number of girls attending school rose more strongly in the programme’s operating area than in similar villages outside it. The girls are catching up: in 2015 it is expected that equal numbers of girls as boys will be attending primary school.

Further information

• Institut National de la Statistique et de la Demographie – INSD
  National Institute for Statistics and Demography
  www.insd.bf
• Le Conseil National de Lutte contre le SIDA et les IST – CNLS-IST
  National Council Against AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases
  www.cnls.bf
• Ministère de la Santé
  www.sante.gov.bf
• Ministère de l’Action Sociale et de la Solidarité Nationale
  www.action-sociale.gov.bf
• Ministère de la Promotion de la Femme
  www.mpf.gov.bf
• Ministère de la Promotion des Droits Humains
  www.mpdh.gov.bf
• Ministère de l`'Enseignement de Base et de l'Alphabetisation
  www.meba.gov.bf
• Ministère des Enseignements Secondaire, Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique
  www.messrs.gov.bf