Evaluating Child Protective Effects of Economic Strengthening and Child Rights Interventions Among Ultra-poor Families in Burkina Faso

This study evaluates a combined economic empowerment and child rights intervention to prevent violence against children and exploitation of children in ultra-poor communities in Burkina Faso. This evaluation study takes place in the Nord Region of Burkina Faso which is located in the Sahel Desert on the border to Mali. The Nord Region is characterized by extreme poverty and an ongoing food and nutrition crisis due to cyclical droughts. Extreme poverty heightens risks of violence and exploitation of children, particularly girls, who may end up in the worst forms of child labor as defined by the UN (e.g., slavery, debt bondage, forced or hazardous work in gold mines, cotton fields, or plantations in the Ivory Coast or in the South of Burkina Faso, involving physical deprivation and violence). About 1.25 million (or 37.8%) of children ages 5-14 in Burkina Faso are working to augment the incomes of their families, or because their families are too poor to support them. Adolescent girls being sent away to work as maids, facing risks of sexual exploitation and abuse. Boys being sent to religious schools madrassas, where they are made to do unpaid and/or hazardous work including begging in the street, and are subject to physical abuse.

The study employs a 3-arm cluster (group) randomized control trial design with baseline and one-year follow-up and includes 360 households (120 households per arm). Each selected household includes a female primary caregiver with a child between the ages of 10-15 who is also able to participate in the evaluation study. The study evaluates the efficacy of an economic empowerment program (Trickle Up) and a combination economic empowerment and child rights sensitization program (Trickle Up Plus) to prevent child separation and potential subsequent exposure to exploitation, abuse, and hazardous working conditions among children. Randomization occurred at the village level to assign households to three study arms: Trickle Up, Trickle Up Plus or the wait-list condition which serves as the control arm. Participants were recruited from 12 impoverished comparable villages that were selected based on socio-economic status (poverty ranking and food insecurity), geography, population size, and distance from urban center. Within these communities, families living in ultra-poverty were identified using a Participatory Wealth Ranking (PWR) exercise.

The evaluation study is implemented in partnership with the Trickle Up organization, Women's Refugee Council (WRC), and Aide aux Enfants et aux Families Démunies (ADEFAD).