Faced with accelerating land degradation in Burkina Faso, the EIIP (Employment Intensive Investment Programme) initiative helped mobilize local labor through cooperatives to restore degraded land, build stone barriers, half-moons, basins, and reforest with a local financing model laying the foundations for financial sustainability beyond the initial funding. The project created a participatory management model and a sustainable local financing mechanism, strengthening capacities, the inclusion of women and youth, and climate resilience. Experience shows that local governance, backed by endogenous financing, is effective and reproducible against desertification.
Background
Burkina Faso, a landlocked Sahelian country in West Africa, is one of the most vulnerable to land degradation, desertification, and drought. More than 80% of its population depends directly on rain-fed agriculture and livestock rearing. Yet, rainfall is increasingly erratic, and average annual precipitation has declined in many areas. Overgrazing, deforestation for fuelwood, unsustainable agricultural practices, and population pressure have accelerated soil erosion and reduced vegetation cover. As a result, approximately 34% of the country's land is already degraded, threatening food security, rural livelihoods, and biodiversity.
This environmental stress is compounded by governance, anthropological, and socioeconomic challenges. Many rural areas suffer from weak land tenure security, limited access to finance, the expansion of degraded land, and fragmented institutional coordination. Limited public budgets limit large-scale mechanized interventions, while rural unemployment and underemployment remain high, particularly among youth and women. In this context, communities and cooperatives are both frontline victims and potential agents of change. Farmer cooperatives have proliferated in Burkina Faso, providing platforms for collective action for soil restoration, water harvesting, and sustainable land management. However, they often lack predictable financing mechanisms and technical support to implement large-scale resilience projects.
The Labor-Intensive Investment Program approach, sometimes referred to as the (EIIP) Employment Intensive Investment Programme, offers a pragmatic response. Instead of relying on capital-intensive machinery, it mobilizes local labor to build and maintain land and water conservation structures, such as stone barriers, half-moons, small reservoirs, and reforestation plots.
However, implementing large-scale projects is fraught with challenges. Projects must coordinate multiple stakeholders, such as local governments, ministries of agriculture and environment, traditional leaders, and cooperatives, to ensure land rights, local mobilization, equitable participation, and sustainable maintenance. Moreover, with innovative financing mechanisms such as revolving funds, cooperative dues, product sales, or blended finance, these initiatives remain independent of donors, promise sustainability, and aim to be long-lasting.
Photo by Behruz Akhmedov
Actions taken
The initiative was conceived as a direct response to accelerating land degradation and the effects of drought in the North, Centre-North, and Sahel regions of Burkina Faso. In previous years, the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, the DGADI, and local municipalities organized a multi-stakeholder workshop to define the objectives of a pilot labor-intensive investment program. While the definition of objectives was led by the DGADI and municipal councils, the process was participatory, involving cooperatives of agricultural producers, pastoralists, landowners, and youth and women's associations. Together, they prioritized activities that combined community mobilization with effective soil and water conservation measures.
The agreed objective was to restore degraded land and build a local model for sustainable, drought-resilient land management. A steering committee, chaired by the municipal council, guided decisions throughout project implementation: validation of work plans, budget allocation, mobilization strategies, and stakeholder conflict resolution. The key principle adopted was that workers should be local (residents or landowners) and members of a cooperative, to ensure local ownership and reduce land-related tensions. Labor mobilization was handled by local authorities through cooperatives. These cooperatives, organized according to the OHADA Uniform Act, have General Assemblies (the supreme body) and elected Boards of Directors, as well as specialized technical committees (Environment and Water and Soil Conservation, Training and Innovation, Gender and Inclusion, Agricultural Production, Market and Marketing). These internal structures planned and supervised fieldwork, ensured the inclusion of women and youth, and provided technical monitoring.
Actions implemented included the construction of stone barriers, zaï, half-moons, and contour trenches, the planting of drought-tolerant fodder species, the development of small retention basins, and selective reforestation with native species. Training modules on land restoration, biochar production from invasive plants, and irrigation management were provided to cooperative members to enable them to replicate these practices beyond the pilot area. Work was often organized on a weekly or seasonal basis, with a clear division of tasks and prioritization of the most degraded areas. In several cooperatives, simple digital tools (phones, GPS, local apps) were introduced to monitor progress, increase transparency, and improve coordination.
Funding arrangements recognized the importance of worker well-being. Each participant received support for daily meals and drinking water (voluntary), funded by the project, the cooperative, or local authorities, thus improving productivity, attendance, and motivation. Since the work was considered to be of community interest, it strengthened social cohesion and local social capital. Furthermore, the project provided the necessary equipment (shovels, picks, wheelbarrows, protective gear) through municipalities and government departments. Once the work was completed, this equipment was handed over to the cooperatives for conservation and maintenance, strengthening sustainability and local capacity.
Before each campaign, participatory community plans defined the plots to be restored, the tasks to be performed, and the intervention periods. The Environment and Water and Soil Conservation Committees identified priority areas, while the Gender and Inclusion Committee ensured the equitable participation of women and youth. This democratic governance made it possible to effectively mobilize the local workforce and develop a sense of collective ownership.
Alternatives were studied. Mechanized restoration was considered but rejected due to its high costs, low social and climate resilience, and equipment maintenance difficulties. The EIIP approach was chosen for its dual advantage: environmental impact and community mobilization generating skills.
Outcomes
The project established, operationalized, and revitalized agricultural cooperatives in the North, North-Central, and Sahel regions of Burkina Faso. These cooperatives, organizationally strengthened, adopted clear statutes, active technical committees, and internal monitoring mechanisms. They became true field actors capable of identifying degraded areas, planning work, and effectively mobilizing local labor.
Thanks to this organization, the project built a participatory model for combating desertification: decisions made at the General Assembly, technical supervision provided by the Water and Soil Conservation Commissions, and the systematic inclusion of youth and women. This approach encouraged community ownership of the structures and their regular maintenance.
Ecologically, the project helped reclaim several hundred hectares of degraded land in the three target regions. Stone barriers, half-moons, zaï, and reforestation have restored soil fertility, improved water infiltration, and reduced erosion. The regeneration of forests and agroforestry parks has helped stabilize microclimates and increase local biodiversity. Water points and small reservoirs have regained greater storage capacity and improved quality, improving access to water for households and livestock.
On the socioeconomic level, the project has strengthened local climate resilience and created income-generating opportunities. Cooperative members have acquired skills in land restoration, irrigation, and biochar production, which has fostered the emergence of income-generating activities (sales of fodder and biochar, small agricultural services). The implementation of a local financing model (a revolving fund funded by membership fees, sales, and external support) has laid the foundation for financial sustainability beyond the initial funding. At the institutional and political levels, this approach has served as a governance model. Local authorities have integrated the EIIP/coops strategy into their municipal development plans, and the Ministry of Agriculture has expressed interest in large-scale implementation. This has strengthened inter-institutional coordination and legitimized the role of cooperatives in the national policy to combat desertification and adapt to climate change.
Challenges persist, however: land insecurity in some areas, a still limited biochar market, and an exodus of young people, which can reduce labor availability. Nevertheless, the mechanisms put in place (tools kept in villages, revolving funds, ongoing technical support, and community involvement) offer solid guarantees of sustainability. The project has thus demonstrated that Employment Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP), supported by democratic cooperatives and local financing, is an effective lever for restoring land, strengthening local capacities, and building sustainable climate resilience.
Lessons Learned
Local ownership and the involvement of cooperatives ensure the sustainability of the structures. By entrusting tools and management to the communities, maintenance and continuity are guaranteed beyond the initial funding.
The EIIP/coops model is easily replicable in other arid and semi-arid areas. Its low cost, local workforce, and participatory governance facilitate gradual expansion without excessive reliance on donors.
The creation of a revolving fund and the integration of local financing (contributions, sales, municipal support) offer a sustainable and adaptable mechanism, reducing vulnerability to external financing.
Training members in Water and Soil Conservation/Land Reclamation and Cooperative Management techniques develops transferable skills that enable communities to duplicate the approach and innovate.
Multi-stakeholder coordination and integration into municipal plans serve as a model of governance and inspire national policies for climate adaptation and the fight against desertification.
