WASHINGTON, July 15 – The World Bank has approved a $120 million financing package to support a new social protection programme in Burkina Faso, aimed at expanding economic opportunities for vulnerable households, strengthening social cohesion and improving the country’s social protection system.
The five-year Burkina Faso Economic Opportunities for Resilience Project will support a new national social assistance programme targeting 120,000 people, including internally displaced persons and returnees. The initiative will focus on improving access to skills development, food security, nutrition, health services, productive assets and financial support.
The financing package includes a 100 million US dollars credit from the International Development Association (IDA) and a 20 million US dollars grant from the Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Program.
The project is designed to support Burkina Faso’s National Social Protection Strategy for 2024–2028 while improving how assistance programmes identify and reach vulnerable households.
A key component of the operation will be strengthening the country’s social registry, a database used to identify households eligible for support. The World Bank said the project will help expand the registry and connect it with other systems, including databases for internally displaced people and health insurance, to improve targeting and coordination.
The new programme follows the Burkina Naong Sa Ya (“Ending Poverty”) Social Safety Nets Project, which operated between 2014 and 2024 and reached more than one million beneficiaries. The previous project also helped establish the national social registry, creating a foundation for expanding social protection programmes.
The World Bank said the latest project will combine immediate assistance with measures aimed at improving households’ long-term economic prospects, including support for women’s economic empowerment and investments that can help families generate sustainable livelihoods.
“The project illustrates our continued commitment to support the government’s effort to achieve more harmonised approach to social protection,” said Hamoud Abdel Wedoud Kamil, World Bank Country Manager for Burkina Faso.
He added that the project aligns with the World Bank’s country partnership framework for Burkina Faso, which focuses on supporting sustained development and creating more and better jobs.
Trina Haque, World Bank Regional Practice Director for Western and Central Africa, said the project is intended to protect vulnerable populations while helping them build economic capacity.
“The package of interventions are both productive and protective,” Haque said, adding that the programme would support access to food, education, health services, productive assets and financial services.
