RENCOSS – Strengthening Social Cohesion and Stabilisation in North Central Burkina Faso

Project

Occupational training and integration
Health

Crédit : Expertise France — Credit : Expertise France

Project start date: December 8 2020

Status
Closed
Project end date: October 31 2022
Financing amount (Euro): 8 M€
Country and region: Burkina Faso

The RENCOSS project is contributing to stabilising the North Central region of Burkina Faso by strengthening social cohesion and developing job opportunities.

Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been subject to repeated attacks that affect civilians, creating substantial internal migration and worsening already fragile job market conditions. In September 2020, the North Central region was hosting 40.8% of the internally displaced persons in the country. The difficulties related to access to resources vital for life, which are under pressure from these population movements, have undermined social cohesion.

The RENCOSS project aims to contribute to stabilising the region, by facilitating access to vocational training and employment for host and displaced populations, and implementing an active plan for sociocultural activities. It follows on from the employment programmes implemented by Expertise France in Burkina Faso.

Find out more about the Programme of Support for Employment in Border and Peripheral Areas in Burkina Faso

Find out more about the Project to Support Job Creation in Northern Burkina Faso

Helping people in Burkina Faso find employment

In view of the social instability in the country, people in Burkina Faso face increasing difficulties in finding a quality job. Displaced populations in the North Central region struggle to find livelihoods and tensions emerge between the various communities, in particular in terms of access to basic resources.

One way of rapidly improving living conditions for people and cohesion between social groups is to create appropriate and diversified training programmes, which lead to stable and paid employment.

To this end, the Project to Strengthen Social Cohesion and Stabilisation in North Central Burkina Faso (RENCOSS) is contributing to the implementation of training projects, which offer basic certificate training courses in various activities (construction industry, agriculture and craft industry) and help create facilities that serve the community (sports and cultural facilities, schools, healthcare centres, etc). 4,000 young people and women will be trained and 2,000 people will graduate throughout the duration of the project.

Accompagner les populations burkinabè vers l'emploi

At the same time, private sector involvement will create business networks likely to expand, based on common values and objectives, while supporting the integration of learners.

Boosting sociocultural activities in the region led by local stakeholders

The project aims to strengthen social cohesion by deploying sociocultural activities. It restores the central role of stakeholders (civil society organisations, regional and local authorities, etc.) in these activities, with the aim of bringing about opportunities for meetings and exchanges and offering cultural and educational events in order to improve the well-being of people. 150 sociocultural events are planned with the aim of reaching 25,000 people. They are a tool to revitalise and develop the region.