Highlights
1. Since end of last year, displacements of population have increased significantly, reaching the figure of 1,121,960 internally displaced people by the 28th of February 2021.
2. Centre-North and Sahel regions remain the most affected regions of the country, with respectively 39.7 % and 31.7 % of the total registered displaced population. They are followed by the Nord (8.3 %), the Est (7.6 %) and the Boucle de Mouhoun (4%). Displaced population are also seeking for refuge in others regions of the country, like Centre-Est (2.6 %) et Hauts Bassins (1.9 %)
3. Although, the response rate has been relatively low in the beginning of the year, in the month of March, the rate has slightly increased ; from 984 households in February to 2,243 in March for Shelter and from 965 households reached to 4,756 for NFI.
4. Out of the new coming emergency alerts, Shelter cluster partners have made notable interventions to assist the displaced households within various host areas ; 1,000 households were assisted in emergency shelter kits and 2,540 households were facilitated in Non Food Items. However, response gaps still exist in order to cover all the affected households in need.
NFI (HH)
Shelter (HH)
Coverage against targets (HH)
Need analysis
The cumulative effects of escalating displacement due to conflict and insecurity are worsening the already precarious housing conditions of the host and displaced population. It is estimated that three-quarters of the displaced population does not have adequate housing conditions in the most difficult to access areas.
In addition to the usual concerns in these situations of precarious housing and high levels of overcrowding, the risks linked to the transmission of COVID-19 are compounded in a country with a fairly degraded health system. The housing conditions and lack of essential household items of the vast majority of people affected by the crisis do not allow for adequate monitoring of preventive measures such as physical distancing and increased hand hygiene in the present. Moreover, over the 70% of the affected population are not in adequate conditions for self-isolation in cases of COVID (MSNA 2020, Reach Initiative).
Response
After the mentioned strong impact of the rainy season on the most vulnerable population shelter conditions, Burkina Faso Shelter Cluster (BF SC)partners have made the common effort to perform a technical revision of the shelter solutions ongoing in country. Added the technical colleagues support, the BF SC regional focal points performed a community consultation in the 5 regions more affected by the crises and gathered their opinions on the different typologies of current shelter solutions. This exercise exposed to the BF SC the need to shift from highly temporary shelter solutions towards more durable and resistant solutions and nourished the programming of the 2021 shelter response.
Shelter and NFi activities conducted with the modality of cash transfer are increasing within the BF SC. Taking into account the specificities of the shelter projects and the lack of experience on this modality of some partners, the SAG agreed on the need to develop an operational guideline within the BF SC with the intention, for the contextualisation of this modality to the sector and the country particularities. It has been recently finished and shared.
Gaps / challenges
Main gaps in the shelter response in Burkina Faso are identified as follows:
- Access to enough, adequate and legally secure land for the shelter response.
- Consideration of the host community in the flood response along with the displaced community. Still the support in terms of shelter and NFI given to the most vulnerable host population is quite behind the target agreed.
- Mobilization of funding for shelter and NFI response at the scale of the population's needs.
- Geographical coverage, due to current limited presence of shelter cluster partners in all affected areas.
