The development of the country is hampered by a strong demographic growth (almost 3% per year) due to high fertility rates, even though this decreased from 6.12 in 2007 to 5.27 in 2017. It is expected that the population will double to 40 million people within less than 20 years, thus putting substantial pressure on the state to provide basic social services such as health, education, and water for the population.  Together with the impacts of an increasingly variable climate and a deteriorating security situation, these developments constitute major challenges for the resilience of communities in Burkina Faso.  

If the demographic growth and vulnerability of communities towards climate change is not managed, the lack of opportunities can exacerbate the risk of instability, displacement and increased migration. With over two million internally displaced people (IDPs), the capacity of the state to provide basic services and access to food has come under further pressure, and tensions between host communities and IDPs are starting to emerge. 

Denmark’s support to strengthen local resilience in the nexus between humanitarian and development assistance will be implemented through various actors such as multilateral organisations and Danish CSOs with a dual-mandate capacity to work both within humanitarian aid and development assistance. Organisations that hold expertise and capacity in promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) in crisis and conflict affected contexts will be called upon to contribute their expertise. 

Building and strengthening community resilience to climate change including IDP households. The project focuses on facilitating access to markets to market crops, support for entrepreneurship and job creation, and access to financial services for youth, women and IDPs. The project covers 32 communes in the western part of Burkina Faso, targeting 48,000 households, 50% of whom are women and 30% young people.