Burkina Faso

Our response to ongoing conflict and displacement in Burkina Faso is funded by the U.S. Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA). We take a multisectoral approach to the needs of conflict-affected Burkinabè that are not currently being met by other humanitarian organizations, with a focus on healthcare, nutrition, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services. 

In partnership with the local organisation AJVLS (L'Association Jeunesse Volontaire pour la promotion du leadership, la santé et le développement), we provide quality nutritional and health services for both internally-displaced Burkinabè and members of host communities, working with families on spotting signs of severe and moderate acute malnutrition in children and providing them with ready-to-use therapeutic food for treatment. We also provide hygiene and dignity kits and integrate aspects of our WASH programming with our broader health and nutritional work.

A key aspect of our healthcare response in Burkina Faso is our Health Surge Approach, which strengthens the capacity of local healthcare facilities to manage peaks in demand for both essential nutrition and other key child health services. The Surge Approach complements routine child health and nutrition services by improving health staffs' use of facility data and knowledge of the local context to better anticipate, plan for, respond to, and bounce back from these increases in demand for common child illness treatment services. 

In Burkina Faso’s Boucle du Mouhoun region, we have implemented the Surge Approach in eight health and social promotion centers, as well as similar community-based nutrition initiatives for both internally-displaced and host communities. This includes training healthcare workers and other community members to manage the program and approach, providing kits, and working with community-based healthcare workers to lead awareness-raising sessions and cooking demonstrations.

For the last several years, spikes in conflict and violence have led to increased food insecurity for Burkina Faso’s largely-agrarian communities. Many families have lost access to both their source of income and their source of food. 

Our integrated livelihoods and food security program addresses both issues. We distribute both food baskets and cash for food (at times both) to families to meet immediate needs, while working with them on longer-term, income-generating projects that provide steady sources of both food and income for displaced and host communities in the Centre-East region.