Burkina Faso is a Sahelian landlocked country in the heart of West Africa with 13 regional territorial authorities, including the Regional council of Centre-Nord. Burkina Faso has faced climate disruptions in recent decades, of which the most recurrent manifestations are droughts and floods. In the region Centre-Nord the impacts derived from these changes in climate are:
As the population of the region lives mainly from agriculture, livestock and gold panning, climate change and its impacts pose significant threats to the local population, especially considering specific climate-related challenges in the region, which include:
The village of Nioko in Centre-Nord is one of the areas that have been severely affected by these hazards, which in turn severely affected the most vulnerable population, especially those who have lost all or part of their livelihoods. In response to this situation, development actors (NGOs) have joined public efforts to make their contributions to building community resilience. Thus, the Technical Alliance for Development Assistance (ATAD for is acronym in French) and its partners, notably OXFAM and Christian Aid, have been active in the Centre-Nord region since 2009. In 2014, the Department for International Development (DFID) in the UK launched the BRACED project with Burkina Faso as one of the beneficiary countries. To respond to this call, ten international, local and public NGOs, with Christian Aid, as lead have organised themselves into a consortium. The objective of the BRACED project in Burkina Faso is to develop transformation solutions to climate variability and disasters by improving climate prediction, behaviour change and the sharing of expertise and resilience technology, with BRAPA (BRACED Participatory Approach) as a basis for intervention in the respective areas.
Participatory Assessment of Vulnerabilities and Capacities – methodology
In the context of actions to combat natural disasters and humanitarian crises, participatory risk analysis appears to be a very important step. As such, the Participatory Assessment of Vulnerabilities and Capacities (VCA) is a participatory diagnostic and planning approach applied to vulnerability risk analysis and livelihood reduction. It is an investigative method to assess the risks faced by the population, its vulnerability to these risks, as well as the ability of the population to cope with and recover from disasters. In this regard, it analyses the context of risks and impacts on the different social groups, particularly women, through participatory tools, develops action plans for risk prevention and management, and develops financing schemes for actions contained in these plans (self-financing by the population and contribution of partners).
The participation the of local population must be voluntary and conscious, meaning that there should be a process of control and approval of the approach and results by the population. The success of the operation requires good relations with local communities and a change in attitudes towards them, while the participatory approach is an active learning process (a mechanical approach to data collection – a process of knowledge production that places the community at its centre). The participatory approach should be flexible and innovative with the use of visualisation as a means of communication and capitalisation. In addition, it requires triangulation, meaning different sources of information to reach consensus conclusions.
The VCA in Nioko village in the region Centre-Nord
Taking into account the high vulnerability of the Nioko village, it was chosen as one of the project areas for the conduction of the VCA. Therefore, during the month of April 2015 community discussions took place. Using a sustainable livelihood approach to assess the risks in the village different topics were addressed during the meeting:
Figure 1: Risk classification by women Figure 2: Risk classification by men
Outcome of the VCA in Nioko:
The Nioko community is committed to the dynamics of resilience in the face of the shocks it has identified and analysed. It relies on the commitment of the social strata that need the support of development partners and the support of technical services. It has the following defined indicators to measure its progress: