Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso, a landlocked Sahelian nation formerly known as Upper Volta, is home to some of the world’s highest maternal mortality and morbidity: A Burkinabe woman dies from pregnancy-related complications every three hours. Moreover, for each maternal death that occurs, 20 to 30 women suffer from pregnancy-related disabilities. While most maternal deaths are preventable, maternal and newborn health programs remain severely under-funded in Burkina Faso and in other West African nations. 

To address this, EngenderHealth collaborates with local organizations to strengthen health care and address the broader issues, like education, socio-economic inequities, and poverty, that impair health in Burkina Faso. As one of 21 West African countries included in the USAID-funded Action for West Africa Region—Reproductive Health (AWARE-RH) Project, EngenderHealth works in Burkina Faso to:

• Make motherhood safer
• Expand contraceptive options
• Reducing health care costs

 
Making Motherhood Safer
In Burkina Faso, EngenderHealth uses an advocacy model called “REDUCE” to highlight the negative economic impact maternal and newborn death and disability can have on a country. The REDUCE team analyzed Burkina’s maternal health data and concluded that improved health care could save the lives of 20,000 women and 53,000 newborns between now and 2015. The improvements would cost approximately $77 million, but would result in a productivity gain of $110 million. Using REDUCE data, the Ministry of Health increased its maternal health budget from 8% in 2005 to 11% in 2006.

Other efforts to improve conditions for pregnant women and new mothers include:

• Developing a new treatment protocol (sulfadoxine pyrimethamine) to prevent malaria in pregnant women.
• Organizing a regional training session to train health care workers in HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis treatment.
• Encouraging the use of magnesium sulfate, an effective, safe, and low-cost medication, to treat eclampsia and pre-eclampsia.

 
Expanding Contraceptive Options
A shortage of skilled providers, inadequate supplies, and lack of accurate information about methods have hindered men’s and women’s access to modern contraception in Burkina Faso. Through the ACQUIRE Project, funded by USAID, EngenderHealth collaborates with Burkina Faso's Ministry of Health, Pathfinder International, and other agencies on the following initiatives:

• Developing a national plan to ensure the availability of family planning and reproductive health supplies;
• Encouraging the government to include funding for contraceptive commodities in the national budget.
• Working with Burkina Faso’s parliament to pass the Reproductive Health Law, which increases access to family planning and reproductive health care;
• Organizing a regional workshop in Ouagadougou to educate the nation’s policy makers about global funding mechanisms.

 
Reducing Health Care Costs
Men and women in the developing world face persistent barriers to quality health care services. A lack of resources, a shortage of doctors and nurses, and scarce supplies contribute to substandard health care. In the more remote areas of West Africa, the nearest health clinic can be a days’ walk away. And even when health facilities are accessible, many people cannot afford services. To help ease the cost of health care, EngenderHealth sponsors health insurance through community-based mutual health organizations (MHOs). Encompassing both preventive and curative care, MHOs allow communities to pool their savings to pay for services when one of their members becomes ill. EngenderHealth works with a women’s group, the Nzambzanga, to offer MHO services to 4,800 women in Kadiogo Province.