Project to strengthen the employability of young people in the local milk sector in the Centre and Hauts Bassins regions

In Burkina Faso, the milk sector has many gaps. In terms of breeding systems, the bulk of milk production in Burkina Faso is provided by traditional breeding systems, for which milk is considered a by-product. Milk production is also highly fragmented, and collection networks are inefficient due to the distance between farms. This low supply of milk has led to an increase in demand. Similarly, youth unemployment is a crucial issue in Burkina Faso. The SOSSIBF-IPROLAIT consortium decided to formulate this project to help create decent, remunerative jobs in the local milk sector for young girls and boys.

Through this project, investments will be made in 52 farms in the Bobo and Ouaga dairy basins. These investments will facilitate forage cultivation, artificial insemination and animal care. All of this will contribute to increasing milk production by 30% by the end of the 32 months of project implementation. In terms of employability, 40 young people and girls will be trained in dairy production, and 10 of them will receive support to set up in business. To ensure the sustainability of the changes brought about by the project, government technical services will be involved in its implementation (DGPA, CMAP, Breeding laboratory). These departments will help to ensure that lessons learned are taken into account to improve the design of projects and programs aimed at boosting dairy production and youth employability. To ensure its success, this project will activate 3 levers: strengthening the production capacities of farms, supporting the employability of young people, strengthening the institutional capacities of IPROLAIT and raising the profile of the local milk sector. The development of the sector depends in part on the technical and organizational capacity of the professional umbrella organization in charge of it. The first step will be to carry out an organizational diagnosis of IPROLAIT, accompanied by capacity-building actions. It will also involve communication actions to improve the sector's visibility, and partnership negotiations to establish contracts for the sale of products and/or services. A synergy of actions will be developed between production, processing and marketing players.