1. Quarterly Volunteers’
Actu’ Volontariat #2/2015
Volunteer
Adams Kukulka
Page 5
We wish our female
volunteers the courage
to pursue their noble
missions.
Since we celebrated International Women's Day this month, United Nations Volunteers (UNV)
wants to honor two female UN Volunteers serving at United Nations Development Program
(UNDP) who have contributed actively to meeting the development objectives of Burkina Faso.
BINTOU DIALLO: National UNV
at United Nations Develop-
ment Program’s (UNDP) Envi-
ronment Unit on behalf of
United Nation Environment
Program (UNEP).
In a global context of climate
change, Bintou Diallo brings
her expertise as an environ-
mentalist to help UNEP and
UNDP, by increasing the resili-
ency of vulnerable people in
Burkina Faso.
Since August 2013, she has
been in charge of the CLIM-
WARN Project aiming at estab-
lishing an efficient early warn-
ing system to inform vulnerable
communities beforehand on
climate risks in three African
countries: Burkina Faso, Ghana
and Kenya. The role of Bintou is
to coordinate and to imple-
ment these activities in Burkina
Faso.
Through a first national
meeting, key stakeholders in-
volved in the field of climate
change were invited, vulnera-
ble sites were identified and
agreements were signed with
local partners to collect field
data. Then, 360 households in
Burkina were surveyed and
focus group interviews were
conducted. This has helped
identify key climate risks, tradi-
tional indicators, accessible and
reliable institutions, infor-
mation channels available and
existing preparedness plans
with communities. A national
and regional workshop helped
validate the results and, now, a
proposal for a prototype plan is
being developed. Bintou got
insightful inputs for the capitali-
zation of the results of this pro-
ject and has completed this in
full coordination as UNEP focal
point for Burkina Faso.
DANIELA BUCHMANN: Interna-
tional UNV gender focal point
for the UNDP Governance Unit
In Burkina Faso, 33.5% of wom-
en report having experienced
some form of violence in the
last twelve months. This critical
data led various UN agencies to
join together in order to com-
bat violence against women
and girls and develop an inter-
agency program aiming to erad-
icate this problem. The UN Vol-
unteer Daniela Buchmann, Gov-
ernance Program Officer and
Gender Focal Point at UNDP,
has given priority to launching
the fight against this problem in
late 2014. Through her proac-
tive initiation of meetings with
the Ministry of Women and
Gender, she proved the im-
portance of this program for
her organization. As a result of
her engagement, program ac-
tivities took off starting with
those funded by UNDP. In fact,
in order to learn from central
stakeholders on primary types
of violence against women and
girls in their region and to com-
pare their experiences with
data on gender-based vio-
lence, the Ministry visited the
Hauts-Bassin Region, the Cen-
tral Plateau Region and the
Centre Region. At the same
time, other activities are
planned in the inter-agency
program, aiming to change
the current situation.
The activities led by UNDP
continued until Burkina Faso
experienced a popular upris-
ing at the end of October
2014. However, the insurrec-
tion and turmoil did not stop
Daniela’s proactivity. In fact,
less than a week after the
insurrection, the Ministry and
our UN Volunteer returned to
the field, training traditional
and religious authorities in
the detection of and the fight
against violence against wom-
en and girls.
The testimony of the tradi-
tional authorities made dur-
ing the trainings, ranging
from mediating in cases of
marital conflict to protecting
women that were victims of
violence in their courtyard,
showed the commitment of
community members to
change their mentality. Final-
ly, at the end of training, the
authorities decided to create
networks focusing on pre-
venting violence against
women and girls.
We wish our female volun-
teers the courage to pursue
their noble missions.
News about Volunteers
Drafted by
Ouarda DERAFA
Quarterly Volunteers’
Newsletter
#2/2015
https://www.facebook.com/unv.burkinafaso
Bintou DIALLO working
with young ladies to
access institutions
Daniela BUCHMANN
facilitating a workshop
session