"Strengthening youth leadership and actively involving young people in responding to major pandemics through innovative approaches are factors that should contribute to the success of the Jeunes en Vigie project in its efforts to improve the health of young people in Burkina Faso."
What is Burcaso's role in the "
" (Youth Watch) project?
Burcaso played an important role during the project's design phase, from needs assessment to project writing. Above all, it is strongly committed to its implementation in the health districts of Koudougou and Réo in the Center-West region, and in the districts of Koupéla and Tenkodogo (Center-East region). The network's mandate is to coordinate interventions, ensure synergy with other actors, and help build the capacity of local partners by providing them with communication tools and advocacy materials. Finally, Burcaso's mission is to strengthen partnerships with health professionals, local authorities, community leaders, and local actors on SRHR (sexual and reproductive health and rights).
What are the main strengths of the project in terms of improving access to healthcare for women and girls?
Unlike many other programs targeting young people in Burkina Faso, this project emphasizes leadership and genuine youth involvement in implementation. Adolescent girls and young people are at the heart of social accountability actions designed to ensure that their rights are respected. The project develops the capacity of stakeholders to raise awareness of SRHR issues in the localities where it operates. It also aims to facilitate their empowerment while strengthening their capacity to bring about change in terms of access to information and healthcare. Jeunes en Vigie aims to make professionals better equipped to provide quality information and services for prevention and care tailored to young girls in response to the three pandemics. This project is clearly in line with the gender approach of the Global Fund's 2017–2022 strategy.
What are the specific challenges you face in carrying out this project?
The two main challenges of this project are, first, to improve access to health services for adolescents and young people and, second, to achieve real social change, in particular through dialogue between the various stakeholders and communication tailored to the target audiences in the field.
To achieve this, I see two main points: the need to work on strengthening the capacity of service providers to offer services to young girls; and improving dialogue and collaboration between national health authorities and community actors.
