Burkina Faso

ISEPS is a youth-led non-profit launched on November 30, 2018 in Burkina Faso. We are officially registered with the Government under the number 4999 with our headquarters in the municipality of Saaba. It aims to promote education, positive peace and health for all for sustainable development in Burkina Faso. To this end, it works to achieve the following objectives, among others: Bring together young people of all religions, races and cultures to celebrate living together in peace ; Develop the capacities of young people to respond constructively to conflicts and human challenges through joint actions, in a spirit of interreligious and intercultural dialogue ; Provide a platform for young people from Burkina Faso to work towards peacebuilding, a culture of peace, dialogue, reconciliation and social cohesion in a spirit of interfaith and intercultural cooperation, mutual understanding and respect for others ; Promote traditional and religious conflict resolution mechanisms including traditional mediation, faith-based mediation and intercultural, interethnic and interreligious dialogue ; Provide mental health and psychosocial support services to extremist ex-combatants, survivors and family members of victims, especially those who witnessed the horrors ; Initiate and lead advocacy and influence actions for equity and inclusion (young people, women, disadvantaged people) in health, education and positive peace policies, including for the implementation of resolutions 2250 "Youth, Peace and Security" and "Women, Peace and Security" of the United Nations Security Council.

As of our experience, we are currently implementing the project "Youth in Interreligious Dialogue and Interfaith Mediation for Peaceful Communities in Burkina Faso" funded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung. We build youth leaders capacities on Faith-Based Mediation, Gender-sensitive Conflict Analysis, Environmental Peacebuilding, Freedom of Religion and of Belief, etc.. 

We also facilitate dialogue spaces on youth interreligious dialogue for peace and climate action including an annual international youth forum on culture of peace focusing on "Youth, Religion, Mediation and Climate Change in the Sahel and West Africa" in 2024. We are also conducting research on the role of traditional and religious youth leaders in environmental mediation in Burkina Faso. In addition, as part of the UN Major Group on Children and Youth delegation, ISEPS took part in the Summit of the Future Action Days and the side events of the Summit of the Future and of the UNGA in New York in September 2024 to contribute to raise the voices of young people to shape the global agenda. Apart from that, we are also implementing a small project with the funding of Haella Foundation called "Youth Interreligious Dialogue in Preventing Violent Extremism in Burkina Faso". In this framework, we organized a training workshop for twenty civil society women leaders on "the Protection of Women Rights in times of crisis and conflict" on March 6-7, 2025 in Ouagadougou and another exchange meeting on the role of women in preventing violent extremism through interreligious dialogue. 

Moreover, we took the opportunity of FESPACO (Pan-African Festival of Cinema and Television of Ouagadougou) to organize a workshop called "FESPACO pour la Paix" to broadcast the film "Epines du Sahel" in collaboration with the producer and to moderate exchanges to raise the awareness of 100 youth on their role in preventing violent extremism in their communities. 

In 2021, we carried out a project to foster community dialogue and strengthen the capacities of 120 women, young people, administrative and civil agents, defense and security forces, and customary and religious leaders in peaceful conflict management and preventing violent extremism in the municipality of Saaba with the support of UNESCO. We had also already benefited from UNESCO fund in 2017 in addition to the support of Religions for Peace International (as recipient of their 2017 global prize on Youth Innovative Approach against religious violent extremism) to organize the first edition of the International Youth Forum on the Culture of Peace, reaching 200 youth with a focus on the theme"Youth engaged in culture of peace through interreligious dialogue in Burkina Faso". We also benefited from the support from the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung to organize a Training Workshop of 60 religious youth leaders on preventing violent extremism in May 2017 in Ouagadougou. ISEPS’s website is : www.iseps-burkina.org