Population Council Research that makes a difference

Overview

The Population Council began working in Burkina Faso in 1989 on the Africa operations research and technical assistance project. It established a country office in Ouagadougou in 1994. Program activities are implemented through collaborative partnerships with government institutions, UN agencies, the World Bank, and nongovernmental organizations.

Program focus

From an early focus on population issues and contraceptive technology, the Council’s work in Burkina Faso has expanded to include activities in all three of its program areas: HIV and AIDS; poverty, gender, and youth; and reproductive health. Council research and technical assistance have addressed contraceptive introduction, family planning and fertility, reproductive health, child survival, women’s status, and issues affecting adolescents. As the Burkinabe government expands maternal and child health and family planning services, the Council is studying ways to develop a cost-effective program capable of satisfying demand for a largely rural population. Staff are looking for ways to expand the tools developed in an intervention study that explored means of increasing access to treatment and care for sex workers and clients with HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

Highlights of past work

• Identified strategies to assist girls who are without access to education and health services in isolated rural areas characterized by high rates of early marriage, maternal and infant mortality, and female genital mutilation/cutting.
• Served as the executing agency of a large, three-year (1999–2002) project funded by UNFPA to improve the capacity and coordination of nongovernmental organizations working in reproductive health; to undertake research and provide support to the Mille Jeunes Filles project; and to conduct operations research on the private-sector provision of reproductive health services.
• Provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Health for the introduction of Norplant® implants.
• Conducted situation analyses of the national family planning program to identify areas in need of improvement.
• Conducted a national reproductive health needs assessment in collaboration with the World Health Organization and a local partner; an analysis of the health-information system on maternal and child health/family planning; and a study on ways to promote condom use among young people.
• Provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Health to establish an innovative community-based project in rural Bazèga province. In 1996, the Bazèga Community Health Laboratory began to offer reproductive health services to a population of 30,000 in 40 villages.
• Undertook the first effort to introduce postabortion-care services in francophone West Africa.

Banner photo: © Beryl Goldberg