Grain by Grain, Burkinabe Women are Building a Sense of Community

Community Mills Provide Space for Discussions on Peace and Stability

- Marata, a management committee member of a Mill in Thiou, Burkina Faso.

In Burkina Faso, water sources and mills have traditionally been places where women can speak freely amongst themselves and share their challenges with one another, such as fetching enough water and grinding enough grain to meet their families’ needs. These tasks take up a significant amount of time and are vitally important for families to function. However, violent extremist group (VEO) threats and attacks have disrupted agricultural production and commercial activities in remote areas. Income-generating activities that are traditionally managed by women — such as agriculture, livestock husbandry, and small-scale market gardening — have been negatively impacted by the violence. The arrival of internally displaced persons (IDPs), mostly women fleeing from conflict-affected areas, has increased the pressure on existing resources, creating tensions between IDPs and host community women. 

USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives’ (OTI) Burkina Faso Regional Program (BFRP) sought to mitigate disruptions to employment in key regions of Burkina Faso by providing a space for women to share their experiences and concerns about the current security context. This involved providing multi-functional mills to help women grind various kinds of cereals into flour and make different types of products, including peanut paste. In the Nord region, BFRP built upon a project that helped train and provide three months of coaching and monitoring in processing techniques, financial management, and marketing to 25 women from Tangaye, Thiou, Koumbri, and Solle communes. The 100 female beneficiaries represented different villages and ethnicities. Women learned techniques on how to diversify and make high-quality products, expanding their reach into new markets. They also learned techniques that enable them to earn more income, providing an alternative to the lure of financial incentives offered by VEOs. 

In Tangaye and Thiou, providing a mill and training paved the way for positive interactions amongst beneficiaries and other women in their communities. Through these activities, which included facilitated discussions on CVE and promoting social cohesion in their communities,  women better understood the importance of their roles as peace agents within their households. They also better understood the importance of promoting tolerance, mutual acceptance, and social inclusion to foster peace and stability for all community members, including IDPs. This support empowered women to produce and sell high quality flour in their communities, allowing them to earn higher incomes and better provide for their families.

“The mill has positively transformed our lives because now, the flour we produce is cleaner, and with the incomes we generate, we can take care of our children’s’ school fees and health issues without waiting for men or any external support,” said Marata, a management committee member of a Mill in Thiou. 

To date, BFRP has provided five multifunctional mills to women’s groups in Tangaye, Thiou, Solle, and Titao in the Nord region, and repaired a broken mill in the Est region as part of the effort to rehabilitate the women’s center in Diapaga. With this support, women gained access to mills, drying tools, and storage spaces to help them grind their cereals and process products under more hygienic conditions. Additionally, these community gathering areas encouraged discussions around the current security context and restoring a sense of community despite the violence.