Begun in January 2020, the project entitled “Facing religious intolerance: improving interreligious dialogue in rural Burkina Faso through participatory action research” came to an end in December 2022. The project team organized the closing workshop on May 19, 2023 at the Institute of Society Sciences. The FONRID-funded project aimed to reduce religious intolerance by improving inter-religious dialogue in Burkina Faso. With the support of five associative structures, The project was implemented in the communes of Léna in the province of Houet and Korsimoro in the province of Sanmatenga. To achieve this, the project team mapped the individual, institutional, associative, customary and religious players involved in promoting inter-religious dialogue and combating religious intolerance in the intervention zones, diagnosed the causes of religious intolerance with these players and proposed sustainable solutions using the Group Analysis Method (MAG).

The team and its partners have also identified and implemented a number of activities, including training customary and religious leaders, organizing community days, planting trees in places of worship, raising awareness among young people and setting up mediation committees. Thanks to these activities and the efforts of all those involved, in Lena a temple was rebuilt in a neighborhood with the agreement of the parties, who decided to bury the hatchet.

The actors gathered in Ouagadougou for the restitution and dissemination of the results are satisfied. They recommended that efforts be pursued and that the administrative authorities be more closely involved to ensure that the gains made are sustained and strengthened.

FONRID General Director Dr Babou André BATIONO, who took part in the proceedings, congratulated the entire project team. He hoped that the results would be disseminated so that the impact would reach the whole country.