Source: World Bank

Burkina Faso is a poor landlocked sub-Saharan country with a population of over 13 million. It has limited natural resources and rainfall with an economy strongly dependent on cotton exports and vulnerable to natural disasters and regional instability. Cote d’Ivoire’s political and economic crisis is straining the Burkinabe economy with the disruption of supply lines, higher costs for transportation, loss of markets, and lower worker’s remittances. Burkina Faso itself has had political stability since 1987 with the launch of the “rectification” of the revolution that included a shift toward more market-oriented economic policies and re-engagement with the international community. Much progress has been made in developing the private sector and liberalizing the economy. However, a deeper reform is needed to support the economy’s diversification that is still based on agriculture of cotton-the single export crop-and low productivity. World prices for cotton improved in 2006 after a 15% decline in 2005. Oil prices rose by 43%, almost doubling the price of oil since 2004 (World Bank March 2007 Country Brief).

Although Burkina Faso has made some socio-economic progress, the situation of women and children has yet to show a substantial improvement. The country has been forced to cope with challenges such as a major locust infestation; meningitis, yellow fever and cholera outbreaks; HIV/AIDS; civil conflict in neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire; surging fuel costs; and falling export prices. Poverty is prevalent, increasing children’s vulnerability.

Issues facing children in Burkina Faso:

• Only 41% of births are attended by trained medical personnel.
• The nutritional status of children under the age of five is deteriorating with malnutrition concentrated in the northern regions bordering Niger. More than 44% of children suffer delayed or stunted growth.
• Burkina Faso is one of 12 countries where the guinea worm has not yet been eradicated.
• HIV/AIDS continues to spread among young people, leaving an estimated 120,000 children orphaned.
• School enrolment rates are very low, especially among girls.
• Of teens and young adults under age 24, almost two thirds are unemployed.

UNICEF, Burkina Faso Background

Child Labour: Burkina Faso has ratified both ILO Convention 182 (worst forms of child labour) and 138 (minimum age of employment).

Source: UNICEF, Burkina Faso Statistics

According to UNICEF, the percentage of children 5 to 14 years of age involved in child labour activities at the moment of the survey (1999-2005) is 57%. A child is considered to be involved in child labour activities as follows: (a) children 5-11 years old doing at least one hour of economic activity or at least 28 hours of domestic work during the week preceding the survey, and (b) children 12-14 years old doing at least 14 hours of economic activity or at least 42 hours of economic activity and domestic work combined during the week preceding the survey. There are no defined statistics describing the differentiation of girl and boy child labourers. However, the high number of child marriages at 52% allows for the assumption that many of those child labourers are girls. With such a high number of child marriages, the tendency for child labourers increases as these children may not attend school in order to work. 

According to Global March’s partner reports, Burkina Faso has taken measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour. There was a reassessment of the Labour Code to push back the minimum working age from 14 to 15 years of age. The Labour Ministry has also leaned its policy against child labour. There is a National Plan of Action, with a National Coordination Committee, for the implementation of ILO Conventions 138 and 182 envisaging the establishment of vocational training for children. A monitoring mechanism by the government for the implementation of the provisions to give effect to this Convention includes an institutionalized annual meeting to monitor and evaluate their implementation. A partnership with civil society has also been established.

Burkina Faso has various government schemes targeted specifically at the worst forms of child labour including child trafficking. However, there are no reported schemes for child prostitution and pornography, children in armed conflicts/child soldiers, or children engaged in illicit activities such as drug trafficking. The budgetary allocation on child labour eradication is less than 1% of GDP. 

Source: EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007

Education: According to the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007, in 2004 the net enrollment ratio for primary education was 40%, showing an improvement since 1991. The primary school net enrollment ratio for males is 46% and for females 35% (2000-2005, UNICEF Burkina Faso Statistics). Females are clearly still at a disadvantage as demonstrated by the low female adult literacy rate of 15%.

With an adult literacy rate of 21.8%, Burkina Faso ranks below the Sub-Saharan Africa literacy rate average of 30% (2005, World Bank March 2007 Country Brief).

Adult literacy rate - Percentage of persons aged 15 and over who can read and write.

Gross primary or secondary school enrolment ratio - The number of children enrolled in a level (primary or secondary), regardless of age, divided by the population of the age group that officially corresponds to the same level. 

Net primary school enrolment ratio - The number of children enrolled in primary school who belong to the age group that officially corresponds to primary schooling, divided by the total population of the same age group.

Net primary school attendance - Percentage of children in the age group that officially corresponds to primary schooling who attend primary school. These data come from national household surveys.

In Burkina Faso the 2003-04 average aid to education (constant 2003 US$) was US$54 million while the aid to education per capita was US$4.30 (EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007). 17% of the central government expenditure (1994-2004) is allocated to education (UNICEF Burkina Faso Statistics). Global March’s partners report the budgetary allocation on primary education to be 9.67% of GDP with a special focus on the girl child’s education providing free school kits for girls in public schools.

Source: EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007

According to EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007, the 2004 number of out-of-school children was 1,271,000.

Among the countries with the largest numbers of out-of school children, Burkina Faso ranked 9th with the number of out-of-school children actually increasing since 1999. However, Global March’s partner reports with the latest statistics places the child population at 2,129, 125, with the number of primary school children at 1,012,150 and those out of school at only 381,653. A government programme to retain out-of-school children includes the application of a new law on education making school free and obligatory up to the age of 16. 

Table 2.11: Percentages of children who have never attended school, by background characteristics

Sources: Bruneforth (2006a); Demographic and Health Surveys 2003 for Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique and Nigeria; 2001 for Mali; 2000 for Ethiopia and Namibia

Source: EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007

Poverty: With the adult literacy rate at only 21.8%, 27% of the population lives below US$1 per day (1994-2004, UNICEF Burkina Faso Statistics). However, according to the 2007 EFA Global Monitoring Report, the population living on less than US$2 per day (1990-2003) is a high 81%.
Nonetheless, Burkina Faso has achieved real gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates of over 5% per year since 1994. Per capita income was US$400 in 2005 compared to US$750 for Sub-Saharan African countries and US$590 for low-income countries. Poverty incidence decreased from 54% in 1998 to about 42% in 2006 (World Bank March 2007 Country Brief).

In 2000, Burkina Faso became one of the first developing countries to prepare a full Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) (World Bank March 2007 Country Brief). However, according to Global March’s partner reports, child labour is not reflected in the PRSP. Still, there is policy coherence on the inter-linkages and coordination among the independent efforts of Education for All, Child Labour Elimination and Poverty Alleviation demonstrated in the messages conveyed in the campaigns carried out at the time of the SMA and OMD.

Regarding promises made by government leaders on the elimination of child labour and providing education for all, in a document on child trafficking made in June 2007, the Labour Minister reaffirmed the need and duty of the state to send to school all children up to the age of 16.
Faso was ranked 174th out of 177 countries in the UNDP 2006 Human Development Index (World Bank March 2007 Country Brief).

Transnational Issues: Disputes-international: two villages are still disputed along the border with Benin, which accuses Burkina Faso of moving boundary pillars. In recent years, citizens and rogue security forces rob and harass the local populations on both sides of the poorly-defined Burkina Faso-Niger border. In addition, despite 9,000 UN forces (UNOCI) present in Cote d'Ivoire since 2004, ethnic conflict continues to spread into neighboring states, which can no longer send their migrant workers to work in Ivorian cocoa plantations.

Source: CIA The World Factbook

Trafficking in Persons: Burkina Faso is a source, transit, and destination country for children and women trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor, with most victims being children. Internally, children are trafficked for domestic servitude; forced labour in agriculture, gold mines and stone quarries; and sexual exploitation. Burkinabe children are trafficked to other West African countries for the same purposes stated above, with the majority likely trafficked to Cote d’Ivoire, and others to Mali, Benin, Nigeria, and Togo. Children are also trafficked from these West African countries to Burkina Faso for the same purposes. Women may be trafficked for forced labour in restaurants, domestic servitude, and sexual exploitation to Burkina Faso from Nigeria, Togo, Benin, and Niger.

Tier rating: Tier 2 –The Burkina Faso government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, despite limited resources, it is making significant efforts to do so. To strengthen its response to trafficking, the government should draft and pass a law to prohibit adult trafficking, impose more severe sentences for traffickers, train border officials to identify victims and traffickers, and update and adopt its draft national action plan to combat trafficking. Burkina Faso does not prohibit all forms of trafficking. But through its 2003 Law No. 038- 2003 Concerning the Definition of Child Trafficking in Burkina Faso, it criminalizes all forms of child trafficking.

Source: 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report