Protecting Children and their Rights in Burkina Faso

Context

Children and young people in Burkina Faso continue to have their rights restricted. State measures to protect children are not being implemented to a sufficient extent.

Increasingly more children and young people are also having to flee from violence and conflict within the country, which is making child protection in Burkina Faso even more difficult and putting a strain on local social services.

Objective

Girls and boys, including internally displaced children, are better protected from child trafficking, harmful forms of child labour and gender-based violence such as genital mutilation.

Approach

The programme supports government and civil society actors in selected communities to better protect children.

Specific measures are:

• Supporting community-based action to protect girls from female genital mutilation and other gender-based violence
• Supporting services and facilities that aim to protect children in general and displaced children in particular
• Improving the training of social workers to enable professional care for child victims of violence

The programme is also involved in other initiatives:

• Sport for Development improves the everyday lives of disadvantaged children and young people, enhances their well-being and promotes social cohesion
• Leave No One Behind is a systematic approach to ensuring that the most disadvantaged children have access to project services
• Digitalisation helps case management partners to improve child protection

Last update: July 2023