Communication Factors Associated with the Creation of Productive Assets among Internally Displaced Persons in Sanmatenga Province

Abstract

The security and food crises that Burkina Faso has been facing for several years have had repercussions on the living conditions of the population. Faced with this situation, the World Food Programme (WFP) is working to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable populations through the Food Assistance Program for the Creation of Productive Assets (3A). The purpose of this study was to analyze the communication factors that influence the creation of productive assets among internally displaced persons in the Centre-Nord region of Burkina Faso. The study took place in villages in three communes in the province of Sanmatenga. An individual questionnaire to collect data was administered to a sample of 319 beneficiaries based on the Le Maux formula. Two software programs were used for the analyses, namely SPSS for statistical analyses and STATA for econometric analyses. The results of the analyses revealed that more than half of the beneficiaries (76.40%) have created productive assets with a dominance of women (60.60%). The types of productive assets created are CES/DRS structures (Zai (92.14%), stone barriers (77.99%), half-moons (88.36%), composting (71.38%); hydro-agricultural developments (school gardens (9.43%), and market gardening perimeters (11.95%), boulis (25.47%). Membership in a farmers’ organization, prior knowledge, and the existence of a framework for interaction between hosts and IDPs positively influence the creation of productive assets, while labor contributes negatively. The methods of communication are individual interviews (12.89%) and focus groups (38.36%), with the use of the telephone as the channel of dissemination by the majority of beneficiaries (57.23%). Five factors influence the creation of productive assets by beneficiaries: membership in a peasant organization, previous knowledge of beneficiaries, relative advantages of productive assets, labor, and the existence of exchange frameworks between hosts and IDPs. Thus, the implementation of appropriate measures by various actors on these variables will lead to an improvement in the level of communication and, consequently, the resilience of vulnerable populations in relation to food insecurity.