Documenting the Strengths and Challenges of Youth Entrepreneurship Education: Burkina Faso

Youth in Action is a six-year youth livelihood program, in partnership with The MasterCard Foundation, YiA aims to improve the socio-economic status of 40,000 out-of-school young people in rural Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, Malawi, and Uganda. Through the development of youth’s foundational skills (literacy, numeracy, and financial literacy), transferable life skills and entrepreneurship skills, they are empowered to make informed pathway choices for the future. 

In Burkina Faso, launched in 2012, YiA aims to reach 4,500 girls and boys aged 14 to18 with the focus on the enterprise pathway. In this pathway, youth are mentored to identify viable local business ideas – that they choose themselves – develop their business plans, and use the start-up grant to start their businesses. This practical learning opportunity links youth to financial services in their community for additional resources in order to improve their livelihood opportunities.

This brief summarizes the findings from a SUPER fellowship study in Burkina Faso. The study sought to find out what youth and community members in Burkina Faso consider to be important entrepreneurial skills and how they view entrepreneurship education and training (EET) delivered throughYiA. By identifying the strengths and weaknesses of YiA EET, the country team can determine how better to support skill development of out-of-school rural youth in agriculture-dependent communities.