By Abdoulaye Ouedraogo, Mathias Sorgo, Aida Zare, Femke van Woesik
This blog is part of a dossier on locally-led adaptation, featuring insights and lessons from the Reversing the Flow (RtF) program. RtF empowers communities in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Sudan to build climate resilience through direct funding and a community-driven, landscape approach.
This blog shares a practical example of locally led adaptation from Burkina Faso, where the local NGO, APIL, started the Reversing the Flow (RTF) program with the launch of the Community Resilience and Social Cohesion Project (RECOCS).
Focused on empowering communities in the Central Plateau and Center-North regions, the project shows how grassroots governance structures and development plans can drive meaningful locally led climate adaptation.
On December 27, 2024, APIL officially launched the RECOCS project with an inclusive workshop designed to align all key stakeholders. Participants included:
- Community leaders and representatives
- Coordinators and facilitators from APIL
- Regional technical services (decentral government) covering agriculture, animal and fishery resources, humanitarian action, youth, environment, water, and sanitation
- Municipal representatives
This project uses a bottom-up approach by using what already exists: namely the municipal development plans (PCP in French) and the local governance structure namely the village development council (CVD in French).
This bottom-up strategy centralizes community ownership and decision-making. APIL’s philosophy is clear: communities decide what they want to do and take full responsibility for implementing those decisions. APIL provides technical support and ensures resources are made available, channeling 70% of the project’s €1 million budget directly into community-led initiatives.
The essence is to start from what structures community already has. The program empowers them to identify and implement solutions that address their unique challenges. This approach not only ensures that actions are locally relevant but also builds ownership and trust within the community and grounds adaptation efforts in local realities.
Fund distribution
To distribute the funds to the community, a village project award committee (CVAM in French) is established. The CVAM’s approach builds on lessons learned from a similar initiative, with a focus on fostering synergy and accountability. Communities will determine CVAM’s composition based on available skills, with technical support as needed. Funds will be transferred to CVD accounts and from CVD accounts directly to the project execution. Communities will serve as monitoring and evaluation agents, ensuring transparency and accountability.
This process is outlined in Figure 1, illustrating the step-by-step approach from identifying community priorities to project implementation and monitoring. As the implementation progresses, the lessons learned from RECOCS will offer valuable insights for scaling similar approaches in other regions facing climate challenges.
