Burkina Faso JR project SUMMARY
Since early 2019, non-state armed groups have consolidated their presence in especially the northern part of Burkina Faso. There has been a sharp increase in violence with reported civilian deaths four times higher than the total recorded in 2018. The escalating levels of insecurity have led to schools being closed and farmers abandoning their fields in search of safety.
In response to the humanitarian situation, Plan International, in collaboration with the Dutch Relief Alliance funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, leads the Burkina Faso JR. As of Dec 1 2018, Plan International Netherlands provides multi-sectoral assistance to respond to the immediate needs in protection and education of the most vulnerable and conflict affected people in targeted areas in the region of Centre-Nord for a total duration of 6 months. Burkina Faso is experiencing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis that left 1.5m people requiring urgent assistance (HRP, July 2019). Circa 490,000 people have been uprooted from their homes as of 8 October, an increase of 68% since 23 September (OCHA,  Oct 2019). Plan's chosen area of intervention - the Centre-Nord - is the region grappling with the largest influx of IDP; as of 8 October, the Bam province hosts 46,872 IDP, the province of Namentenga, 27,195 IDP and the province of Sanmatenga – the most affected, 169,409 IDPs, which represents respectively a 758%, 176% and 88% increase in two weeks (idem).

The precarious security situation in Centre-North is putting additional pressure on the already depleted resources of host communities. It has crippled Education services with 145 primary schools closed, depriving 26,266 children from their right to education (Ministry of Education, Oct 2019). It has exacerbated protection needs and constraints, with 151 cases of human rights violation registered in the Centre-North (67%) and Sahel (33%), including 45 assassinations, 10 cases of physical abuse, 4 of child abuse and 8 of sexual abuse and rape (UNCHR, Sept 2019). The Global Child Protection Area of Responsibility has highlighted abuse, exploitation, child recruitment by armed groups and physically endangerment as additional risks posed to children due to the crisis. As of June 2019, half of the IDP children are estimated to be in need of Psychosocial Support. As of 6 September, out of the 244 cases of UASC identified, 85 (43 girls) had not been reunited with their families (CPiE Sectoral Group, Sept 2019). Other CP issues identified with the potential of being aggravated by the crisis include concerns of child labour, child trafficking, out of school children and early and forced marriage as confirmed in Plan's NA. Thus, Plan will address the urgent needs limiting children and adolescents to enjoy their right to Education and Protection in this complex emergency. Plan & APJEE's proposed response has the following overall objective: 
Girls and boys (0-12 years), adolescents (13-17 years) and young women and men (18-24 years)  affected by the humanitarian crisis in the Centre-North region of Burkina Faso have access to quality Child and GBV protection services and Education opportunities to prevent and respond to violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation.
 
Through this action, Plan & APJEE will respond to priority unmet CP and Education needs of internally displaced children, youth and their families in 4 locations with 4 Mobile Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) and 2 Youth Friendly Spaces (YFS) set up as per SPHERE and Cluster standards. The overall approach of the integrated EiE and CPiE response is two-folded and directly responding the the identified Education & Protection needs in the HNO.
Plan & APJEE will work to:

1)re-establish community level protective environment comprising psychosocial support, referral to services and capacity strengthening of community members residing in host communities. Empowering CAFAAGs and child GBV survivors (or at risk of) through socio-economic reintegration in an effort to prevent further exploitation and minimize child labor. 
2)re-establish access to education for the internally displaced children, in particular for those who are most vulnerable and have not been able to enrol in the formal education system. 

This project will complement Save the Children’s CP activities which will be delivered in 2 communes of Centre-North region whilst Plan will deliver in four different communes, ensuring an increased number of conflict-affected children’s needs are met in this JR. Also, Plan seeks improved coordination and synergy with existing active humanitarian actors in the same communes of Centre-Nord (DRC, UNHCR, UNFPA, UNICEF) and state social providers by leading a workshop under this project to ensure referrals to health, nutrition and social services in a timely and adequate manner. Plan has been active in Burkina Faso since 1976 and well established in the proposed area, including through a Programme Unit in Kaya (Centre-North region). Plan has been responding to the current crisis since 2019 with a portfolio of 3.2M EUR using strong ties in the communities, collaborating with CBOs, government bodies (Ministère de L'Education, Ministère de la Femme, Solidarité nationale, Famille et de l'action humanitarie and Direction Générale de l’Encadrement de la Protection de l’Enfant et de l’Adolescent) and humanitarian actors, and has throughout built expertise in the EiE, CPiE, FSL & NFI sectors to respond to the crisis in Centre-Nord & Sahel.

Plan Burkina Faso is co-lead of the EiE Working Group with UNICEF. Plan provides technical assistance and information management capacity through regular meetings to ensure coordinated, timely and accountable Education response. At national level, Plan is actively involved in other inter-agency coordination efforts to prioritise cross-sector collaboration. Plan is co-lead of the CP Sub-working group with the DGPEA (Direction Générale de l’Encadrement de la Protection de l’Enfant et de l’Adolescent) and UNICEF, lead in the GBV sub-working group with UNFPA and lead in the Cash working group with FAO. Close collaboration will be maintained with UNOCHA and UNDSS for security aspects of the project. Lastly, to ensure access to the most affected areas and enhance a localised response, Plan will work with local partner APJEE. The response targets the most vulnerable conflict-affected children, especially unaccompanied and separated children, children associated with armed forces, child GBV survivors and at risk children and adolescents in hard to reach areas such as Bourom and Yalgo. The project will prevent GBV and support GBV survivors, particularly adolescents at risk of GBV. This action owns a strategic advantage due to Plan and APJEE's long lasting presence in Centre-Nord allowing us to access communes and identify beneficiaries based on agreed Cluster selection criteria and in collaboration with local authorities. Plan will be guided by its Child Trafficking Needs Assessment conducted in Kaya. We will target 5,300 beneficiaries, including 2,000 children (0-12 years, 60% girls); 400 adolescents (13-17 years, 50% girls); 200 youth (18-24 years, 60% women) with GBV prevention & response which will be accessible to both IDP (60%) and vulnerable host community (40%) ensuring a conflict-sensitive approach. Plan will be operating out of its Kaya sub-office with local partner-led implementation ensuring accessibility & sustainability of the JR. Plan has been working with AJPEE since the start of the crisis and will continue to build their emergency response capacity. AJPEE has strong expertise and experience in Education and Protection and will be responsible for running the CFS/TLS & YFS, in collaboration with the state social action services. Plan has strong ties with local authorities since before the emergency, and more recently through humanitarian EiE and CPiE projects as well as wide scale NFI distributions. The delivery model is based on service provision and in-kind support, drawing from Plan’s successful experience (PDMs results) since beginning our Centre-Nord response in  January 2019. The mobile approach adopted ensures flexibility to respond to the needs of the mobile IDP.