PAX has been working in Burkina Faso since 2021. PAX’s Protection of Civilians program has been implementing a Human Security Project in Burkina Faso since 2024. This focuses primarily on collecting information on civilian perceptions regarding their security, community engagement activities aimed at crafting local protection solutions, and human security-informed training and advise activities with national actors.
Burkina Faso faces significant security challenges, including persistent attacks by terrorist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, affecting both civilian populations, and defense and security forces. Over time, these challenges have affected almost all regions of the country, particularly the northern, north central, and eastern regions, where armed groups exploit local grievances, resource competition, and limited state presence to expand their influence. The constantly evolving conflict context is fueled by community tensions, various frustrations and banditry, contributing to massive population displacements, humanitarian needs, and ongoing risks to the security of civilians. Addressing these challenges requires coordinated efforts to restore human security, strengthening trust and collaboration between civilians and security actors, and the creation of comprehensive and inclusive mechanisms to address causes of insecurity.
The PoC team’s work in Burkina Faso primarily consists of survey research on civilian perceptions regarding their security and community engagement through our Human Security Survey (HSS) approach, and on training and advising relevant security actors and government bodies on how to improve human security. Our interventions aim to contribute to the trust building between civilians and security actors that is needed to restore inclusive governance structures.
The Human Security Survey
In 2025, PAX layed the foundations for its HSS work in Burkina Faso, including by obtaining all the necessary legal documents to establish PAX’s official institutional presence in the country, and by identifying locations for data collection, preparing survey questionnaires and recruiting and training enumerators and supervisors. The HSS is a unique survey methodology developed by PAX, which includes a series of complementary activities, including population-based research, active community engagement, and advocacy. It gathers large-scale, representative data from civilians on their own safety and security situations, in order to use this for local community engagement and peacebuilding efforts, as well as for national and international advocacy.
Our first iteration will take place in 2026 in and around Fada in the east of Burkina Faso after having obtained the required statistical visa. PAX aims to expand the area of research to contribute to building trust between communities and security actors by providing relevant data and opportunities to engage security and governance actors on human security.
Read more about our HSS methodology here.
Training and advice
PAX is developing its training and advice methodologies tested in other countries together with Burkinabé governance and security actors to make them fit for purpose in Burkina Faso. This phase consists of exchanging methodologies with existing training initiatives to see where value can be added from a human security perspective, informed in part by our HSS. In 2025, PAX organized several meetings with government institutions to discuss curriculum development- and training exchange needs among Burkinabé security and governance actors. In 2026, PAX will implement a tailored approach and train a pool of trainers to support human security-centric training of the security forces.
Search
