Contribution to the UNHCR's activities in Burkina Faso 2021



Contract partner: UNHCR - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Country: Burkina Faso Funding amount: € 1.000.000,00 Project start: 01.01.2021 End: 31.12.2021

Short Description:

Overall goal


UNHCR's overall objective is to strengthen protection monitoring and shelter/core relief items (CRI) interventions for affected populations in Burkina Faso.


Expected results


Under ist planned response for 2021, UNHCR will achieve following results:

- Protection from the effects of armed conflict strengthened:

UNHCR will continue the protection monitoring, in line with project 21, through the collection, verification and analysis of information in areas affected by insecurity or

population movements in order to identify human rights violations and the protection risks to which civilian populations are exposed.

- Shelter and infrastructure established, improved and maintained:

UNHCR will continue to strengthen the resilience of affected populations through the provision of shelter.

In 2021, UNHCR aims to reach at least 1,003,908 individuals, including 21,756 refugees, 901,977 internally displaced people and 80,175 persons from the host communities, with protection and other multi-sectorial assistance.


Target group / Beneficiaries


Austria's Contribution of EUR 1,000,000 will allow UNHCR to target a total of 51,100 persons, including refugees, internally displaced people and host communities, of which:

- 900 persons referred to the appropriate Service;

- 3,000 persons with specific needs assisted (CBI, direct assistance, dignity kits);

- 24,000 Situation of persons of concern monitored;

- 12,000 persons participating to community awareness activities on protection topics enabled and sustained;

- Provision of emergency shelters for 5,600 IDPs (800 HH);

- Provision of semi-durable shelters for 1,470 IDPs (210 HH) and 630 host community members (90 HH);

- Provision of cash for assistance for essential domestic items for 3,150 IDPs (450HH) and 350 (50) host community members.

UNHCR will implement the project through its partners (including Burkinabe Movement for human & people's rights, INTERSOS, Plan International) in close coordination with the Government of Burkina Faso and other UN agencies. The Protection Monitoring programme, will be carried out in the regions most affected by population movements - namely the Sahel, the Center-North, North, East, the Boucle de Mouhoun and the Hauts-Bassins. It will also cover other regions, notably the Center- East, the Central Plateau, and the Cascades, recently affected by internal displacement, as well as all the regions which might be newly affected in 2021. In addition, UNHCR will further expand its shelter and CRI response, including through the provision of emergency and semi-durable shelters in the North region.


Activities


Protection Monitoring:

- Focal points in communities and partner staff collect information on the protection situation by utilizing a standardized questionnaire covering key protection aspects.

-UNHCR and partners document and analyse the collected data with a focus on identifying protection trends.

-Ensure the operation of referral mechanisms.

-Implementation of community strengthening and social cohesion activities through sensitization (on topics such as protection, community participation, prevention of SGBV, among others), focus groups, support to existing community structures including women's organizations.

-Capacity building of actors (protection committees, community relays) for prevention and care of people with specific needs will be organised, also focusing on gender equality and the elimination of violence against women and girls. The active engagement and participation of men will be promoted.


Shelter/CRIs:

-Construction of UNHCR-type emergency and semi-durable shelters.

adapted to the environment and the households’ needs.

-Distribution of complete CRI standard kits (in kind) composed as suggested by the CRIs technical committee of blankets, mats, mosquito nets, bucket, basin, kitchen set soap, improved stove, torch, cloth and rice bag of 100kg. Or alternatively through cash-based interventions.


Context


Persisting insecurity caused by attacks perpetrated by armed groups and heightened criminality in several regions in Burkina Faso, continues to cause massive forced displacement. According to Government sources, as of 10 November 2020, there are more than 1,049,767 IDPs. A trend that keeps rising, making Burkina Faso one of the fastest growing displacement and protection crises in the world. With no end in sight to the Sahel conflict, further displacement is expected in both rural and urban areas. Despite facing internal turmoil, Burkina Faso has continued to generously host

refugees, as of 31 October 2020, there are over 20,000 refugees in the country, 98% of whom are Malians.


Host populations have been the first responders to these movements and are now under pressure as they share the little resources, they have with those forcibly displaced. Displaced populations are in desperate need of shelter, CRI, food, water, protection, and health. Education also remains a priority, as over 2,500 schools have been forced to close after being targeted thus affecting almost 350,000 students. Sexual and gender-based violence is widespread and has been further aggravated by overcrowding in sites and confinement.


Faced with this situation, the Government of Burkina Faso and humanitarian actors immediately mobilized to provide a coordinated humanitarian response. At the end of 2019, protection monitoring was initiated by the UNHCR and its partners in the regions most affected by population movements and later on expanded to other affected regions like the Plateau Central and the Cascades. The main incidents and protection risks identified through protection monitoring in the most affected areas are intercommunity tensions and human rights violations such as attacks on physical integrity,

SGBV, deprivation of liberty, violence against children, as well as attacks on property, inaccessibility to basic social services, conflicts over the sharing of available resources with host communities.


Some other key aspects of the response related to reception and accommodation conditions for IDPs. Indeed, the negative impact of the deterioration of the security situation on the housing conditions of displaced families in acute needs persists. According to the National Council for Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation (CONASUR), 95,064 households saw their shelters damaged and / or destroyed and their CRIs lost in 2020.


COVID-19 adds another layer of vulnerability, with widespread movement restrictions and disruption on local economies and supply chains, making individuals more prone to shocks and de-facto more vulnerable. In the COVID-19 operational context, UNHCR has put in place standard operating procedures to reduce the risk of transmission of disease and to ensure the continuation of its activities, in consultation with Government counterparts and partners.

project number 2682-00/2021
source of funding AKF
sector Humanitäre Hilfe: Sofortmaßnahmen
tied
modality Contributions to specific-purpose programmes and funds managed by international organisations (multilateral, INGO)
marker Gender: 1, Poverty: 1
  • Policy marker: are used to identify, assess and facilitate the monitoring of activities in support of policy objectives concerning gender equality, aid to environment, participatory development/good governance, trade development and reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health. Activities targeting the objectives of the Rio Conventions include the identification of biodiversity, climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, and desertification.
    • 1= policy is a significant objective of the activity
    • 2= policy is the principal objective of the activity
  • Donor/ source of funding: The ADA is not only implementing projects and programmes of the Austrian Development Cooperation , but also projects funded from other sources and donors such as
    • AKF - Foreign Disaster Fund of the Austrian federal government
    • BMLFUW - Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water
    • EU - Funds of the European Commission
    • Others - various other donors are listed in ADA’s annual business report.
  • Type of Aid – Aid modalities: classifies transfers from the donor to the first recipient of funds such as budget support, core contributions and pooled programmes and funds to CSOs and multilateral organisations, project-type interventions, experts and other technical assistance, scholarships and student costs in donor countries, debt relief, administrative costs and other in-donor expenditures.
  • Purpose/ sector code: classifies the specific area of the recipient’s economic or social structure, funded by a bilateral contribution.
  • Tied/Untied: Untied aid is defined as loans and grants whose proceeds are fully and freely available to finance procurement from all OECD countries and substantially all developing countries. Transactions are considered tied unless the donor has, at the time of the aid offer, clearly specified a range of countries eligible for procurement which meets the tests for “untied” aid.