Feasibility study of the Tirawa Initiative in support of the Food Security Support Project (PSAE) Burkina Faso

Context of the service

The Food Security Support Project in Eastern Burkina Faso (PSAE) has a budget of €34 million and is implemented from the end of 2012 to the end of 2016. AFD wished to strengthen the PSAE by adding a "Tiwara Initiative" component, with a budget of €14 million, with the general objective of "Strengthening the development of agro-sylvo-pastoral sectors and more broadly the development of economic activities in rural territories in the Eastern Region, located on the border with Niger and the Sahel Region of Burkina Faso, particularly vulnerable spaces from a security, economic and social point of view".
The Tirawa initiative specifically plans to "Improve the social and professional integration of young people: promote access to employment in rural areas, professional qualifications, land and equipment necessary for the start of economic activity".
SalvaTerra's agro-sylvo-pastoralist expert contributed to this feasibility study, as part of a team composed of a team leader, a sociologist, an expert in environmental and social assessment and an expert in public finance and decentralization.

Services provided

The expert contributed to the analysis of the relevance and feasibility of the actions to be included in the PSAE-IT, through four deliverables:
- Agro-sylvo-pastoral diagnosis: definition of key concepts in the local context (youth, insecurity, vulnerability and resilience, etc.), targeting of target municipalities, key characteristics of agro-sylvo-pastoral activities and the place of young people;
- Identification of economic and employment opportunities: in agriculture (rainfed food and cash crops, irrigated rice, market gardening), livestock (extensive cattle breeding, cattle/sheep/goat fattening, poultry farming, porciculture) and the collection of NWFPs (honey, vegetable NWFP: shea, néré, baobab, etc.);
- Analysis of the vulnerability of young people: biophysical (climate change, soil degradation) and socio-economic (land insecurity, undercapitalization and under-equipment of farms, lack of social safety net, "slippage of values"),
- Synthesis and cross-referencing of the above elements in order to propose a logical framework, action plan and budget for the PSAE-IT.

Summary of the service

Feasibility study of a €14 million project called "Tirawa Initiative, in support of the Food Security Project in the Eastern Region of Burkina Faso (PSAE, €34 million): Identification of feasible, profitable and climate-smart activities in the field of subsistence and cash crops, cattle and small ruminant breeding, NWFP harvesting and processing, etc. and targeting activities on the most vulnerable groups (young men and women, women, small farmers) after a thorough assessment of their vulnerability.