This study, conducted for Plan International Burkina Faso, explored how girls and young women can act as key agents in promoting girls’ rights using a Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) approach. The goal was to enhance Plan International’s programming and advocacy by identifying ways to empower young women through co-created interventions tailored to their needs. The study was youth-led, with young women driving the research process, supported by consultants.
It focused on the Girls Out Loud (GOL) platform, a private social media space for girls and young women to discuss relevant issues safely.
The designed approach relied on a hybrid format combining local and remote support, facilitated by a local consultant (the platform’s former moderator).
The FPAR training included two components: (1) capacity building on FPAR for the local consultant to lead similar participatory approaches in the future, and (2) co-designing the research with young women members of the GOL platform.
Following methodology design, the co-researchers conducted telephone and face-to-face interviews with members of each region represented on the GOL platform as well as with young women and young men from their communities. In parallel, an online survey was shared on the platform.
Once the data was collected, a final workshop was held via WhatsApp over a period of one week. The aim of this workshop was to validate the results with the co-researchers and to reflect together on the conclusions and recommendations to be drawn from them. The study’s findings were compiled into a final report to inform future advocacy and programming.
