Impacts of Gender Mainstreaming Interventions on Women’s and Youth’s Empowerment in Burkina-Faso

Abstract

The aim of the present research is to assess the impacts of gender mainstreaming interventions on women’s and youth’s empowerment (WE) in the Dryland systems program in the north region of Burkina Faso. Through the program, a systematic gender approach is introduced and adopted by all CGIAR centers and key research interventions in order induce changes in the ways men, women and youth are involved in their livelihood strategies, in the control of the resources and in the benefit from this use of resources in a climate change context. The study was conducted in northern Burkina Faso and assessed impacts of gender mainstreaming interventions on women’s and youth’s empowerment in the dryland systems program. Data was collected from dryland systems sites in the province of Yatenga, Zandoma and Passoré. Based on quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, interviews have been carried out with questionnaire administrated to 260 households in the intervention and control zone. Although results howed that women in the intervention area were more empowered than women in the control area, it should be noted that the WEAI score in both areas remained low and below the median score. In fact, according to the WEAI methodology, the high score is 0.85 or higher; the median score is between 0.73 and 0.84; the low score is 0.72 or less. In the area of intervention, the age of women appears to be associated with the adequacy of the various indicators. Indeed, 69% of women under 25 have a good contribution to decision-making, compared with 7.6% for older women. The main domains that have contributed to improving the empowerment of women in the area of intervention are the production (35%) and the leadership and individual influence (26%). The WEA index is 0.55% for the intervention zone and 0.53% for the control zone. However, an appropriate gender mainstreaming interventions and gender specific approaches are needed to ensure more equity with the Dryland Systems Program’s intervention technics and methodologies.