Place-based Curriculum for Internally Displaced Students Adaptation to Climate Change: Experimental Evidence Using Caterpillars in Burkina-Faso

Burkina Faso is highly affected by climate change which represents an important health and education issue and contributed to the international displacement people (IDP) crisis. Inter-communal clashes over land, water, and other scarce resources have become more common in many regions. The severity of warming favored the caterpillars' (Cirina butyrospermi) development and negatively impacted on farmers’ shea, maize, etc. production. However, the caterpillars constitute the main source of edible insect protein in human food and are consumed by many ethnic groups. Around 3.3 million people faced a food crisis during the year, double the figure for 2019. About 1,135 schools in northern and eastern regions were closed, depriving at least 154,233 pupils of their right to education. Among the total of 13,785 children (6,828 girls) that get access to formal or non-formation education through UNICEF’s support, we have 3,250 refugee children (1,517 girls) and 4,767 internally displaced children (2,240 girls). Thus, the proposal will contribute to improving students’ climate change adaptation in Burkina Faso through place-based curriculum development on caterpillars by answering the question: How can a place-based curriculum contribute to student climate education based on caterpillars' use? The place-based intervention will be the subject of: - Classroom session: Hours of lessons on the relationship between climate change, maize, and shea production, and the use of caterpillars for human, animal, and plant nutrition. - Field experience: Students will visit maize and shea crops and see the caterpillars’ destruction process in the context of climate change and their collection, consumption, and sale.