Burkina Faso – Victory Against Malnutrition Project (ViM)

Reducing Malnutrition, Improving Livelihoods

USAID’s Office of Food for Peace recently awarded ACDI/VOCA a five-year, $37 million dollar Title II food security program in Burkina Faso to improve farmers’ incomes and household food security and nutrition, especially among pregnant women and young children.

The ACDI/VOCA Burkina Faso team will work with its key partners, Save the Children and the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV), to implement the Victory against Malnutrition Project (Projet Victoire sur la Malnutrition), which is called Project Vim for short. “Vim” means “life” in the local Moore language, which is spoken in the target intervention zone of Sanmatenga province.

Sanmatenga province in Burkina Faso has some of the country’s highest childhood malnutrition rates. It also holds promise for increased agricultural productivity and rural market activities, which could reduce poverty and improve food security in the area.

Nutrition-Agriculture-Income Boosting Strategies

The program team will use multiple strategies, ranging from agriculture value chain analysis to nutritional behavior change techniques and improved health and sanitation infrastructure, to improve food security and nutrition and link vulnerable households to sustainable livelihoods. The activities will be organized around three program objectives:

1. Increase and diversify agricultural production
2. Improve household incomes
3. Reduce chronic malnutrition among children younger than 5 and pregnant and lactating women

As part of its comprehensive approach, the program team also will address community and household gender equity and environmental stewardship issues related to agricultural productivity, income-generating activities, and household health and nutrition.

Scope of Victory against Malnutrition

The Victory against Malnutrition project expects to reach nearly 155,000 direct beneficiaries and 37,200 indirect beneficiaries. Program activities will target 29,112 unique households, including 18,983 individual households for livelihood interventions. As part of the USAID Food for Peace program, ACDI/VOCA expects to monetize 20,570 MT of rice and directly distribute 6,450 MT of corn soy milk, pinto beans and vegetable oil.

Expected Results: Better Agriculture, Income, Nutrition

Agricultural activities will center on enhancing productivity and increasing food availability through improved farming practices and technologies. Expected intermediate results include:

• strengthened producer groups
• improved farm management practices adopted by more farmers
• increased access of smallholder farmers to agricultural inputs
• better integration of livestock into household production systems

Improve household incomes

Income-generating activities will stem from in-depth agricultural value chain analyses. Potential strategies include developing sustainable relationships between beneficiaries and public and private stakeholders, and linking smallholder farmers to profitable domestic and regional markets. Expected intermediate results include:

• improved market linkages
• expanded off-farm employment opportunities
• better access to market services

Reduce chronic malnutrition of children, women

Nutrition-enhancing activities will improve the caloric, protein and micronutrient intake and absorption of children younger than 5 and pregnant or lactating women. Expected intermediate results include:

• increased use of key Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition (MCHN) and sanitation practices and services improved access to key MCHN services and supplies
• better access to improved sanitation infrastructure
• Nutrition, Poverty Context in Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso has been on the road to becoming one of Africa’s success stories of improved nutrition and reduced poverty for its people. In the decade preceding 2007, political stability and sound government policies led to a growth rate of 6 percent (World Bank).

In recent years, however, a series of external shocks, including floods and droughts, the international food and fuel crises, and the ongoing global financial crisis, have slowed Burkina Faso’s growth rate. As a result, the country’s poverty rate has climbed to nearly 50 percent. Moreover, between 2003 and 2007, the proportion of rural people living in poverty increased from 92.2 percent to 94.1 percent.

Burkina Faso remains on track to reach its Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets for better primary education access, more potable water and reduced HIV prevalence. However, the country’s infant and maternal mortality rates remain alarmingly high. Infant mortality is 73 deaths per 1,000 live births in Burkina Faso (Population Reference Bureau). The maternal mortality ratio (MMR) was 1,000 per 100,000 women (2003, WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA). The world average MMR is 400 per 100,000 women, and only 20 per 100,000 in developed countries.

For more information, contact Michael Wasson at mwasson@acdivoca.org.

Updated: 8/11

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