This study, carried out for Plan International Burkina Faso, aimed to explore the potential of girls and young women as central actors in the promotion of girls’ rights in Burkina Faso through an FPAR approach (Feminist Participative Approach). The ultimate objective was to help Plan International improve its programming and influencing work in Burkina Faso by identifying opportunities for the empowerment of young women through the co-creation of interventions targeting the needs of girls and young people. The study was focused and led by young women, with support from the consultants, to generate knowledge and action through a participatory process.
In order to meet these objectives, ITAR proposed a three-phase approach: (1) an inception phase to finalise the research methodology with members of the Girls Out Loud (GOL) platform; (2) a data collection phase; and (3) a phase to finalise the drafting and presentation of the research results.
In order to apply the FPAR approach to this study, it was based on a hybrid format providing ongoing support for the co-researchers, both locally and remotely, relying on a local consultant – the former moderator of the GOL platform.
The FPAR training included two components: capacity building on FPAR and co-design of the research. In order to answer the research questions, the co-researchers conducted telephone and face-to-face interviews with members of each region represented on the GOL platform, as well as 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. This final report was produced as a result of this workshop.
