“Bee-ba-ta a un bébé!” Seated on plastic mats, their sandals and book bags on the ground nearby, children follow text with chalk-dusted fingers as they practice reading. Months ago these children spent most of their time begging in the streets of the Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou. With help from local university student volunteers and support from the NGO Terre des hommes (Tdh), the children - part of Burkina’s Malian Tuareg community - now spend their days in the classroom.

A United Nations-backed pilot programme that supplies electric generators to rural women farmers in Burkina Faso, freeing them from lengthy chores so that they can devote more time to education, childcare and health care, is to be adopted on a national scale.

He gives computer advice to his fellow-teachers and fixes broken printers. He also uses digital material to enrich his classes and by using a school blog he helped to set up a partnership with a French school. Through IICD-supported trainings, teacher Christophe Hien of Bogodogo College in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso is now an ICT expert at his scho

In a landmark decision, the government of Burkina Faso has decided to remove its water and electricity utilities from the list of state companies to be privatised. Defying the IMF, government rather decided it would be enough to restructure the companies' management.