Burkina Faso

51% of girls in Burkina Faso Marry or enter a union before age 18 and 9% marry before age 15.

2% of boys in Burkina Faso marry before age 18.

According to a 2015 UNICEF and ICRW study, the Sahel region has the highest rate of child marriage (76%), followed by Est (72%). There are little variations in child marriage rates among Burkina Faso’s main ethnic groups.

Nationally child marriage has remained at the same level in Burkina Faso over the past three decades, and has even intensified in some regions, possibly due to increasing instability.

A 2017 World Bank/ICRW study estimated that ending child marriage in Burkina Faso could see a 7.45% rise in earnings and productivity for Burkinese women who married early, and an additional USD 178 million in earnings and productivity for the country.

Child marriage is driven by gender inequality and the belief that women and girls are somehow inferior to men and boys.

In Burkina Faso, child marriage is also driven by:

● Level of education: Girls with no education marry at a younger age than those who have completed secondary school or higher.

● Poverty: Girls living in Burkina Faso’s poorest households have a lower median age of first marriage than those in the richest households.

● Harmful practices: Litho involves girls being exchanged and married off between families. Sometimes such agreements take place as early as the birth of the girl. Pog-lenga is still practiced among some Mossi and Bissa ethnic groups, and involves brides bringing nieces to wedding ceremonies as extra girls to be married, either to the groom or a family member or friend.

● Violence against girls: Some girls in Burkina Faso are threatened with violence or banishment if they do not accept a marriage. Some feel pressured to marry because of financial agreements made between families. The subsequent guilt and potential loss of money and social status coerces many girls into agreeing to marry. Girls in the Sahel region are particularly at risk of sexual and gender-based violence due to increasing instability.

● COVID-19: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on some of the poorest households and has exacerbated the vulnerability of children. The pandemic exposed vulnerable families to loss of financial income, pushing them further into poverty and exclusion. This poses a big risk for girls in Burkina Faso, because girls with no/limited education are four times more likely to experience child marriage than women with a secondary or higher education; over 2,000 schools were closed nationally, affecting over 300,000 children.

Humanitarian settings can encompass a wide range of situations before, during, and after natural disasters, conflicts, and epidemics. They exacerbate poverty, insecurity, and a lack of access to services such as education, factors which all drive child marriage. While gender inequality is a root cause of child marriage in both stable and crisis contexts, often in times of crisis, families see child marriage as a way to cope with greater economic hardship and to protect girls from increased violence.

The humanitarian situation has been deteriorating in Burkina Faso since 2021 and there has been massive population displacement across the eastern and northern parts of the country. It is one of the fastest growing humanitarian crises in the world. The country has in recent years been gripped by escalating violence that has spread across some West and Central African countries. Clashes between government forces and armed groups linked to ISIL and al-Qaeda compromised the education and health systems and forced thousands to flee their homes. Violence has led to 1.57 million people being displaced and 4.65 million (of which 55% are children) people in need of humanitarian assistance.

● Humanitarian situation and conflict: Compromised education and health care systems have led to increased rates of school dropouts and violence against women and girls, including child marriage. More research is needed to understand and monitor the impact on child marriage of the conflict and humanitarian situation in Burkina Faso.

Burkina Faso has committed to ending child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals.

During its 2023 Universal Periodic Review, Burkina Faso noted that several efforts have been made to combat gender-based violence such as awareness-raising campaigns and training initiatives between 2018 – 2022. These initiatives included:

7,608 women and men were reached in awareness-raising programmes on gender equality and gender-based violence prevention.

165 key stakeholders in criminal justice and gender units, were engaged in training sessions on gender-based violence, FGM/C and child marriage: care of survivors of gender-based violence.

1,000 training of members of the National Armed Forces and Internal Security Forces on issues relating to gender discrimination and gender-based violence.

114,506 women and girls underwent training on how to prevent child marriage and 700 monitoring units were established across 700 villages.

During its Voluntary National Review at the 2019 High Level Political Forum, the government did not provide an update on progress towards this target, but mentioned projects and efforts to end child and forced marriage in Burkina Faso. The government has not submitted a Voluntary National Review in any High Level Political Forum since 2019.

In July 2021, at the Generation Equality Forum in Paris, Burkina Faso committed to a 5-year action journey to accelerate gender equality by 2026. The $40 million USD investment will include the development of legal and social change to end gender-based violence, child marriage, female genital mutilation in Togo, Benin, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

Burkina Faso co-sponsored the 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage, and the 2013 and 2015 Human Rights Council resolutions on child, early and forced marriage. In 2014, Burkina Faso signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

During its 2018 Universal Periodic Review, Burkina Faso supported recommendations to fast-track the implementation of the national strategy on ending child marriage for the period 2016–2025, and amend the Individuals and Family Code to set 18 years as the minimum age of marriage for both boys and girls.

In 2017 the CEDAW Committee recommended that Burkina Faso amend the Personal and Family Code to prohibit forced cohabitation and traditional weddings, and allocate sufficient resources for the implementation of the strategy to combat child marriage. The Committee also expressed concerns that refugee women and girls in the country are at an increased risk of early and forced marriage.

During its 2013 Universal Periodic Review, Burkina Faso supported recommendations to increase the minimum legal age for marriage to 18 years and to explicitly prohibit child marriage.

Burkina Faso ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, which the Committee on the Rights of the Child has interpreted to recommend the establishment of a minimum age of marriage of 18and acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1987, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

The Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) Initiative, launched in 2015 across Burkina Faso, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. The initiative was launched specifically in the Sahel region, the world’s poorest region, where women and girls are exposed to conflict, terrorism natural disasters, poverty, famine and inequality. The 3 main aims of this initiative are:

Create demand for reproductive, maternal, neonatal and child health and nutrition (RMNCHN) services by promoting behavioural and social change and empowerment for women and girls;

Reinforce availability of RMNCHN health care workers;

Strengthen advocacy and promote policy development and implementation.

Burkina Faso is a focus country of the Strategic Technical Assistance for Research (STAR) Initiative that is supported by the UNICEF-UNFPA Global Programme to End Child Marriage. The main aim of the STAR initiative is to provide comprehensive technical research on ending child marriage and FGM/C, through capacity building workshops, strategic research and evidence synthesis.

In 2015 Burkina Faso launched the African Union Campaign to end child marriage in Africa.

In 1992 Burkina Faso ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, including Article 21 regarding the prohibition of child marriage.

In 2006 Burkina Faso ratified the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, including Article 6 which sets the minimum age for marriage as 18.

As a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in 2017 Burkina Faso adopted the Strategic Framework for Strengthening National Child Protection Systems under which protecting children from marriage is a priority. In June 2019, the ECOWAS Heads of State endorsed the ECOWAS Child Policy and Strategic Action Plan and the 2019-2030 Roadmap on prevention and response to child marriage.

In addition, in July 2019, the ECOWAS First Ladies signed “The Niamey Declaration: Call to End Child Marriage and to promote the Education and empowerment of Girls”, calling Member States to initiate legislative, institutional and budgetary reforms to implement the Roadmap.

At the London Girl Summit in July 2014, the government signed a charter committing to end child marriage by 2020. Burkina Faso is one of 11 countries working to create child marriage-free communities by 2020 as part of the Her Choice Alliance.

Burkina Faso is a partner country of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).

Burkina Faso is a focus country of the UNICEF-UNFPA Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage, a multi-donor, multi-stakeholder programme working across 12 countries over fifteen years.

In the 2022 annual report of the Global Programme to end child marriage established:

268,875 girls participated in intervention programmes aimed at empowering them with the skills to delay child marriage.

1.5 million people were reached via media campaigns on ending child marriage through the campaign “Don’t call me madam.”

2,008 girls were provided with support to continue education, this included providing them with bicycles in order to assit them to travel to school.

1,095 villages committed to ending harmful practices such as FMG/C, gender-based violence and child marriage. Since the commitment of many villages, community-based child protection units have been established in each village and are being supervised by the relevant government structures.

5,920 religious and community elders were mobilized to act in consensus building to end child marriage. This was done in nine regions, namely: centre-west, centre-east, centre-north, Boucle du Mouhoun, Hauts-Bassins, Cascades, north and Sahel).

‘Child-Friendly Quality School Initiative’ (EQAME) was implemented by the Ministry of National Education, Literacy and the Promotion of National Languages (with the support of UNICEF). This initiative supports girls, particularly in primary school, to stay in education. There are 1,004 schools that are EQAME approved. EQAME schools include specific modules on gender-sensitive pedagogy and child protection. A complaints mechanism has also been established between educators and child protection services to manage, report and combat cases of child marriage and gender inequality.

As part of the UNICEF-UNFPA Global Programme, in 2018 more than 58,000 girls received life skills training that included the means to become agents of change against child marriage, and almost 210,000 individuals participated in regular community dialogues on children’s and women’s rights which included discussion on the benefits of delaying marriage.

The Global Programme also supported the adoption of the National Child Protection Strategy 2019-2023, the Operational Action Plan 2021-2024 and the National Action Plan to Combat Child Violence which all help to promote the eradication of child marriage and identify vulnerable children.

With support from the Global Programme, the Government launched a national campaign for the acceleration of progress to end child marriage Ne m’appelez pas Madame (“Don’t call me Madame”) in 2018. The campaign includes a video clip featuring 1,000 adolescent girls speaking up for the elimination of child marriage together with two internationally known Burkinabè artists. This campaign aims to raise awareness on child marriage in Burkina Faso and change norms around the practice to enable its elimination.

In 2015 the government adopted the National Strategy for the Prevention and Elimination of Child Marriage (2016-2025) and two subsequent action plans (2016-2018 and 2019-2021), being the first country in West and Central Africa to do so.

Since the implementation of the National Strategy for the Prevention and Elimination of Child Marriage, the government has:

Rescued 400,000 girls from child marriage;

Supported 696,832 girls who were at risk of child marriage;

6,830 girls who were previously at risk of child marriage were supported to remain in education;

In 2021, a child sexual abuse prevention network was established.

The strategy was developed with many stakeholders including several line ministries, UN agencies, religious and traditional leaders, the National Coalition to End Child Marriage and citizens from across the country. It has four objectives:

Prevent all forms of child marriage

Support victims of child marriage

Strengthen national efforts to end the practice

Coordinate, monitor and evaluate the implementation of the strategy.

In 2016, a Multisector Platform for the Prevention and Elimination of Child Marriage was established to support the implementation of the National Strategy to End Child Marriage.

In 2017, the First Lady of Burkina Faso, Mrs. Sika Kaboré, hosted a national high-level panel on child marriage with ministers. In the same year, she indicated her support to the National Coalition to End Child Marriage (CONAMEB) in advocating to the National Assembly to raise the legal age of marriage to 18 for boys and girls. The Code des Personnes et de la Famille setting the minimum age of marriage is now under review by the Ministry of Justice before it needs to be approved by the National Assembly.

Burkina Faso adopted the Operation Strategy for Child Protection Humanitarian Action 2019–2021 integrating humanitarian and development planning as an essential step towards longer-term response. The strategy outlines five mutually reinforcing change strategies and aims to achieve that girls and boys, particularly the most vulnerable, affected by a humanitarian crisis, are protected from all forms of violence, abuse, exploitation and harmful practices, and benefit from equitable child protection services.

From 2019, the government of Burkina Faso committed to provide free family planning services, including contraceptives and medical consultations. The lack of information and access to contraception has been found to be closely related to child marriage in Burkina Faso.

From 2008-2010 the Ministry of Social Action and National Solidarity implemented the pilot project, “Eliminating early marriage in Burkina Faso: a community protection, empowerment and intervention plan” in five regions, enabling provision of psychosocial assistance to 332 survivors and the prosecution of nine people.

The World Bank Sahel Women Empowerment and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) project launched in 2015 aims to raise the age of marriage and teenage pregnancies with a focus on girls' education and empowerment, through demand generation and supply of reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health services, promotion of social and behavioural change and strengthening political commitment and policy and project management capacity. The Sukaabe rewle project (to end child marriage), a component of the SWEDD project, aims to address some of the communication gaps around the National Strategy.

Under the Code des Personnes et de la Famille 1989, the minimum age of marriage is 17 years for girls and 20 years for boys. However girls can marry as young as 15 years and boys at 18 years if it is authorised by civil courts.

In February 2016 the Burkinabé government promised to increase the legal marriage age for girls to 18, which was further supported by statements from the First Lady in 2017. However, it appears that no progress has been made towards implementing the government’s pledge as yet.

In 2018, the Burkina Faso National Assembly adopted a revised Penal Code that penalises all forms of child marriage. The Penal Code includes strengthened provisions to improve the protective environment of girls in schools against abuse and to punish perpetrators, including teachers. However, the new Penal Code does not amend the minimum age of marriage.