Koudougou: In a surge of broad mobilization, traditional and customary leaders of Burkina Faso met in Koudougou from August 26 to 29 for a historic forum, focused on children’s rights.
According to Burkina Information Agency, this event, organized by UNICEF and the RAYIMI association, aimed to strengthen the role of traditional leaders in the promotion and protection of children’s rights, a crucial issue in a country facing multiple challenges.
The forum took place in a challenging context, marked by alarming figures: 3.3 million children out of school in 2022, the closure of many schools due to insecurity, and high rates of infant mortality caused by preventable diseases. Recognizing the influence of their status, traditional leaders decided to act.
Over the course of four days, the chiefs and their wives participated in intensive training sessions. They learned about key issues such as birth registration, child abuse, female genital mutilation (FGM), and child marriage.
These exchanges, designed to combine tradition and modernity, highlighted the importance of relying on customary values to drive positive change.
The forum culminated in the signing of the Koudougou Commitment, a collective charter symbolizing the leaders’ desire to move from words to action.
In this document, traditional leaders commit to combating child marriage and FGM and other harmful traditional practices by promoting girls’ education; encouraging the schooling of boys and girls without discrimination and supporting civic education initiatives; promoting health and nutrition by supporting vaccination campaigns, raising awareness of good dietary practices for pregnant women and combating malnutrition.
This list is extended with other commitments including: improving access to drinking water and hygiene by encouraging the use of latrines and promoting hand washing; promoting peace and social cohesion, based on the principle that the stability of the country begins with the well-being of the child.
To ensure the implementation of these commitments, the leaders also agreed to create a community monitoring committee that will assess progress quarterly. These actions will serve as the basis for local action plans that will benefit from technical and financial support from UNICEF.
This collective commitment marks a major turning point. Traditional leaders, guardians of customs, are now positioning themselves as key development actors, ready to transform social and behavioral norms to guarantee a better future for all children in Burkina Faso.