Stories of change in nutrition in Burkina Faso 1992–2018: a macro-level perspective

Abstract

Looking back at the development of successful enabling environments for nutrition may inform policymakers on how to accelerate progress to end all forms of malnutrition by 2030. As under-five stunting declined substantially in Burkina Faso, from a peak at 45% in 1998/99 to 25% in 2018, we analyzed through a stories of change approach the actors, ideas, initiatives, policies and capacities which enabled wide-scale nutrition progress. We triangulated findings from policy analysis, stakeholder mapping, and national-level semi-structured interviews (n = 20). We found that since 2002, nutrition has been anchored in the Ministry of Health, where leadership advocated for the creation of coordination bodies, enabling a coherent defining of nutrition and laying groundwork for better integration of nutrition into and prioritization of nutrition by the health and tangential ministries. Under the leadership of the Ministry of Health and its partners, horizontal and vertical coherence in nutrition action increased, through effective cooperation between nutrition actors; increasing intersectoral collaboration, particularly with the influential agriculture sector; and increasing funding to support nutrition-sensitive programming and build the capacity of nutrition staff. Nevertheless, sustainably organizing funding and human resources at the decentralized level remained challenging, in a context of emerging threats such as climate change and insecurity. Burkina Faso’s health sector’s success in creating an enabling environment for nutrition may have contributed to improvements in child nutrition alongside other sectoral improvements. Enhancing accountability of the Health, Agriculture, WASH, Education and Social Protection sectors and empowering decentralized bodies to take nutrition-relevant decisions may help accelerating progress in nutrition.

Agricultural Yield Responses to Climate Variabilities in West Africa: A Food Supply and Demand Analysis

“…For the same region, [18] studied the relationship of flood recessions and food security related to water management activities. Another host of recent studies revealed that food insecurity mostly occurred in rural areas due to inappropriate infrastructure and food storage systems, as well as donor tensions or reduced incomes [19,20]. From a different view, [21] investigated the link between climate change and farming activities with an emphasis on the perception of local farmers to support the agricultural and nutritional requirements in Burkina Faso.…”

Climate, weather and child health in Burkina Faso

“…We focus our analysis on Burkina Faso because it is an example of a low-income country that has long been facing development challenges from existing stressors including climate change (Brown & Crawford, 2008), in part manifested in increasing temperatures, a downward trend in overall rainfall but an increase in heavy precipitation days. Despite food security worsening across the Sahel region, Burkina Faso has improved its human development indicators, including reducing child mortality, in part through investing in women's access to universal health care (Samb & Ridde, 2018), and a focus on improved nutrition (Turowska et al, 2022). Yet, climate change may well negate these improvements.…”

Food Security, Nutritional Supply, and Nutrient Sources in Rural Burkina Faso

“…The Direction of Nutrition was created in the Ministry of Health in 2002 and it has taken leadership on the nutritional agenda since then. It advocated and prioritized the nutritional agenda and coordinated intersectoral collaboration, which contributed to nutritional improvement in Burkina Faso; however, there has been difficulty in ensuring funding and human resources at the decentralized level [ 6 ]. In addition, political instability, emerging conflicts and displacement, climate change, and rapid population growth have been challenges for food security and nutrition in Burkina Faso.…”