Burkina Faso's youth speak up: Boys and girls share their needs and expectations of the humanitarian response

While accountability to affected people is a fundamental element of humanitarian responses, the voices of crisis-affected boys and girls are often left out. Given that young people represent 55% of those in need in Burkina Faso and have a right to be heard, the Child Protection sub-cluster in Burkina Faso asked Ground Truth Solutions to support the development of a study to understand young people’s perceptions so that their views can inform humanitarian planning by government offcials, nongovernmental organisations, and humanitarian coordination.

Ground Truth Solutions is an international non-governmental organisation that helps communities influence the design and implementation of humanitarian assistance and has over a decade of experience engaging with crisis-affected populations to collect their views on the assistance they receive, as well as their recommendations for how things could be improved. Since 2020, Ground Truth Solutions has supported the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Humanitarian Country Team by conducting surveys of people in Burkina Faso on the receiving end of humanitarian assistance.

To develop a youth-centred methodology, Ground Truth Solutions collaborated with actors specialising in child protection with a solid understanding of the national context to coordinate an exploratory research project to identify priority themes for girls and boys. This was achieved with considerable support from technical and operational partners based in Burkina Faso – Terre des hommes Lausanne, Humanity and Inclusion, ECPAT France, the National Coordination of Associations of Children and Young Workers in Burkina Faso, and Plan International – as well as the support of the Child Protection sub-cluster and the Ministry of Solidarity, Humanitarian Action, National Reconciliation, Gender and Family. Some partners contributed to this project without additional funding, showing remarkable dedication to hearing young people’s perceptions and ensuring they inform the actions of humanitarian actors.