BenkadiBaara – All together for youth employment!

Burkina Faso faces major challenges and issues, with a predominantly young population and high levels of underemployment among young people, especially young women. This is a real challenge in itself, and can be both an asset, because it gives young people an essential role as a force for production and innovation.

Vocational training, the integration and employment of young people, and more generally the involvement of young people in society, are considered to be major challenges for the development of the country. The high proportion of unemployed young people means that employability and vocational integration schemes need to be strengthened, among other things by exploiting opportunities for partnerships with the private sector and civil society players.

Burkina Faso has embarked on a process of moving towards a green economy, with food security as its primary challenge. Many players are committed to transforming the economy into a green economy, based on green and greening professions, green entrepreneurship and the creation of green jobs. It is also a major priority for action and funding by a number of Burkina Faso's technical and financial partners, including the European Union, through the Team Europe Initiative 2 "Green Pact for Youth".

This is the background to the "BenkadiBaara – All together for youth employment!" project. Its overall aim is to promote the development of the green economy as a generator of decent jobs for young people. This objective is in line with the expected impact of the Team Europe Initiative 2, whose specific objective is to promote green employment for young women and men for the sustainable development of the intervention regions.

The project aims to help reduce youth unemployment in the areas concerned. It aims to improve the chances of survival and development of formal and informal businesses in the green economy. From the outset, the project will seek to use systems transformation approaches that will enable young people to find their place in society and the economy, thereby contributing to the emergence of a more resilient, dynamic and agile society that will improve well-being in a fragile environment.

The project is located in the Ouagadougou – Koudougou – Dédougou – Bobo Dioulasso "triangle", the country's breadbasket, which is home to around 10% of the country's internally displaced persons and is expected to receive an increasing influx of internally displaced persons.

The direct beneficiaries of the intervention are estimated at 45,000 young women and men aged between 16 and 35. Particular attention will be paid to young people aged 16 to 24 who are of an age to enter the labour market, especially girls. It will specifically target 5,000 internally displaced young people and vulnerable young people, in particular people with disabilities, single mothers and orphans.