LAGRO – Working in the agri-food sector

The LAGRO project aims to address socio-economic and food challenges in Burkina Faso by specifically focusing on vulnerable groups such as returning migrants, internally displaced persons, youth and women. The overall objective is to promote local, inclusive and sustainable development that can ensure decent work opportunities, especially for young people.

The context

In recent times, the urban and peri-urban area of ​​Ouagadougou has been hit by an exponential increase in population. Overpopulation has produced obvious negative consequences both in terms of unemployment and food insecurity, which today affects 17% of the population in the capital. Mani Tese is involved in several actions to support youth entrepreneurship, especially in the agri-food sector and the green economy, to reduce the high rate of unemployment and promote innovation in agricultural production.

The goals

In the project “LAGRO – Working in agri-food: Socio-economic development and opportunities for vocational training and decent work in the agri-food sector in Burkina Faso”, as for all Mani Tese interventions in the country, the use of a gender transformative approach, which aims to modify gender power relations with the aim of producing a positive change in the social and cultural paradigms that produce discrimination and inequalities.

The LAGRO project aims to address the socio-economic and food challenges in Burkina Faso by focusing specifically on those vulnerable categories present in the country such as returning migrants, internally displaced persons, young e women. The overall objective is to promote local, inclusive and sustainable development that can ensure decent work opportunities, especially for young people.

The activities

The three-year project “LAGRO” is funded by the Department for Civil Liberties of the Italian Ministry of the Interior under the call for proposals RELINT 2024, for a total amount of € 1.666.608,48 of which € 1.499.947,63 of ministerial funding.

Specifically, the project is divided into two dimensions:

  1. Professional training: the project includes training on agro-ecological practices, catering and processing of agri-food products. All this is accompanied by awareness-raising and information activities on migratory risks and related human rights violations;
  2. Job placement: through the collaboration of crucial local partners in the agri-food sector for what concerns agricultural production, but also transformation and marketing, following the professional training courses, work placement activities in the catering sector will be promoted, as well as actions to support micro-enterprises in the sector and, jointly, the capitalization of training in the agro-ecological sector will be provided through the implementation of the promoted practices in the territory.