Burkina Faso: Strategic meeting to focus infrastructure on peacebuilding
From June 3 to 5, 2025, Ouagadougou is hosting a workshop bringing together partners and beneficiaries of the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) in Burkina Faso. This event aims to guide participants through the Fund’s new directives, clarify the role of social and security infrastructures in peacebuilding, and propose an action matrix to measure their impact on conflict reduction.
Since 2017, the PBF has funded 27 projects in Burkina Faso, amounting to a total of 58 million dollars. These projects focus on strengthening trust between the state and the population, promoting social resilience, encouraging the active participation of women and youth, and fostering the peaceful resolution of conflicts.
At its December 2024 session, the PBF steering committee recommended prioritizing investments in social and security infrastructures. The Secretary-General of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Vieux Abdoul Rachid Soulama, emphasized the importance of designing large-scale projects that tangibly improve the living conditions of the population.
Significant achievements have already been made, including the construction of eight water points in the Cascades and South-West regions, benefiting 18,000 people, and the establishment of 34 cross-border infrastructures in the Sahel and East regions to reduce conflicts related to transhumance and pressure on water resources.
The United Nations Resident Coordinator in Burkina Faso, Carole Flore Smereczniak, stressed the need to invest in inclusive and resilient social infrastructures that can generate opportunities for reconstruction, employment, and improved access to basic social services.
This workshop, organized by the office of the UN Resident Coordinator with the support of UNOPS and in partnership with the General Directorate of Territorial Development, seeks to align efforts with the needs of communities—particularly youth and women—for a truly transformative impact.
