Notwithstanding the difficulties, the World Food Program (WFP) has joined forces with the Government of Burkina Faso and two other UN partners, the Food and Agricultural Organization and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, to undertake resilience-building projects aimed at increasing agricultural productivity and the economic integration of smallholder farmers such as Ouedraogo, who constitute the majority of the nation’s labor force. According to Moussa Ouedragogo, prefect of the Oula commune, which contains Reka village, the resilience initiative is also fostering stronger ties between the local farming community and newly arrived refugees who have fled violence. The resilience-building programs, which are a collaborative effort between the Sahel government and humanitarian organizations like the World Food Program, are aimed at about 10,000 people in the Nord and Boucle du Mahoun, two of Burkina Faso’s northwest districts that share a border with Mali.