Tackling inequality: Sahel Activists from Burkina Faso set out priorities for Burkina

Following Chad and Senegal, AfricTivistes trainers have arrived in Burkina Faso to support and equip a group of change-makers as part of the Sahel Insight project. This training series uses a new co-creation and collective-intelligence methodology, with sessions on civic engagement, civic leadership, digital campaigning and influence, and integrating gender policy to promote civic participation and reduce inequalities in the Sahel.

Against the backdrop of a series of coups in West Africa, the challenges of building a sustainable and inclusive future are immense. In this geopolitical and security climate, these young people say they understand their individual and collective responsibilities. They believe they have had greater impact and influence between 1984 and 2021, and intend to join forces through a community-led movement to address the many ills caused by inequalities. In their view, these include extreme poverty, violence, corruption, ethnicism, regionalism, illiteracy, a lack of civic responsibility and injustice.

Meeting in Burkina Faso’s capital from 21 to 24 February 2022, this group of around 20 participants pledged to join forces and become a powerful collective force and genuine agents of transformative change. For many, although they had each been active individually, this session was their first opportunity to meet one another.

In his opening remarks, Mr Kabore Omer, Oxfam’s Country Director in Burkina Faso, welcomed the AfricTivistes team and reassured them that “they were at home, despite everything happening in the country”. He also spoke about the importance of this project, led by AfricTivistes in partnership with Oxfam and Wildaf. “This training,” he said, “is an opportunity for young people in Burkina Faso to become familiar with the concepts and challenges of civic engagement, and to gain skills in digital campaigning so they can better understand the issues involved in tackling inequalities in the Sahel.”

As in N’Djamena and Dakar, the Sahel Activists taking part in the Ouagadougou session drew on the Burkinabè context to define inequality as the unequal distribution of wealth. This is reflected in the lack of access to basic social services for the majority of the population, as well as in injustice reinforced by certain socio-cultural, religious and political practices and beliefs.

The young activists in Burkina Faso plan to focus on actions that could, over the long term, help change attitudes and behaviour by raising awareness of inequality, so that the whole country can take ownership of the campaign.

In their view, this effort can succeed only if it includes:

• Respect for human rights;
• The promotion of education;
• Access to basic social services;
• Women’s political participation;
• Coordinated action;
• Fair justice;
• An inclusive approach to developing and implementing public policies;
• Quality education for all.

Through a SWOT analysis, the young people identified their strengths as a collective. These include their determination and resilience, the diversity of their skills and backgrounds, their capacity for innovation and teamwork, their shared motivation and passion, and their individual and collective networks.

Their group work helped them identify three main ways to put their participation in the fight against inequality in Burkina Faso into practice:

• Designing and launching a web platform on inequality in Burkina Faso;
• A training programme on civic engagement and inequality;
• An awareness-raising campaign on inequality.

These actions could have a considerable positive impact on the fight against inequality in Burkina Faso, a struggle that will certainly not be won in a day.

They remain convinced that the internet is currently the best way to train, educate and engage the community. Alongside creating a dedicated web platform, they plan to train and equip 180 pupils in civic engagement and reducing inequality through nine training sessions. A campaign on child marriage will also be launched.

The Sahel Activists in Burkina Faso understand the sensitive nature of their work and are aware of the threats they face, as well as their weaknesses as a collective of change-makers. Developing and analysing a stakeholder and power map helped them identify actors in the Burkinabè context who are hostile to change.

At the end of the training on civic engagement, leadership, gender and digital campaigning to tackle inequality, participants shared their impressions in interviews.

BAILOU Bénédicte, a lawyer specialising in women’s rights and coordinator of the Femin-in association, which promotes women’s civic participation in Burkina Faso, said the training was practical, intensive and technical. “Practical because of the collective-intelligence methodology used by AfricTivistes. Intensive because the importance of the material required us to concentrate throughout the sessions. Technical because we were equipped to achieve the expected results,” she said.

Asked whether the training would be useful for his personal and community projects, SON Aboubacar, a sociologist and Chair of the Board of Leadership Jeune Pour La Paix et Le Développement en Afrique, said he had already begun applying the methodology with a group of young people through his association.

SANA Amdiatou, Communications Officer at the Association pour le Bonheur des Personnes Nécessiteuses (ABPN), said her understanding of gender had changed considerably. Thanks to the training, she had finally understood the issues involved in tackling gender-based violence.

It should also be noted that Oxfam’s country office has committed to meeting with the collective to identify ways to work together and implement the Sahel Activists Faso projects.

AfricTivistes trainers will meet participants in Niger from 7 to 11 March 2021, the final stop on the caravan’s first phase as part of the AfricTivistes Sahel Insight project.