1. RESEAU MARP

2. Climate change is a Christian Aid priority. It is happening now and it is affecting the poor first and will affect them worst. People who have never benefited from industrialisation are suffering its consequences.

3. Why is Christian Aid supporting Reseau MARP? Burkina Faso is seventh from the bottom on the UN Human Development Index and on the front line of climate change. The average GDP is just $1,265pa 80% of Burkinabe rely on farming and fishing for their livelihood. They often lack the knowledge and the country lacks the infrastructure for them to pursue other livelihoods. Burkina Faso lies just south of the Sahara, which is advancing at a rate of 300m a year, turning agricultural land into scrub and scrub into desert. Life expectancy is 55 years and the average age is 16.

4. Burkina Faso Zondoma and Nouhari Province

5. Zondoma and Nouhari Province receive just 70cm of rain a year and most of the last 30 years have been classified as droughts. Tragically, when it does rain the water can’t be absorbed by the parched earth and it floods. In 2008 10,000 ha of agricultural land in Zondoma and Nouhari were destroyed.

6. The solution Establish a soil-replenishing tree nursery: with seeds, saplings and tools provided. Enable skills-sharing: by organising a local cereal fairs and exchange visits to other communities. Set up seed banks: stocked with drought resistant varieties and managed by the communities. Help farmers access micro-credit for income generating projects: helping people with few assets obtain loans means they can take the first step to working themselves out of poverty. Assist farming diversification: demo-farms will be set up to teach farming techniques. Selected community members will be trained and equipped as village vaccinators for livestock. Improve nutritional practices by establishing agreements with the health centres, who will train community health volunteers in basic nutrition. Restore flooded land: young men receive two meals a day and training in water and soil conservation and soil drainage as they assist the regeneration of the flooded land. Develop “inland-valleys” for rice growing and market gardens. Reseau MARP help to negotiate land rights, purchase and distribute building materials and provide training.

7. Your Help: With your help Reseau MARP will help communities living on the edge move away from it. They will be able to withstand droughts and floods and they will be able to stay on, and thrive in, their land.

8. Thank you.