At Work Around the World

Burkina Faso


Building Hope

Formerly known as Upper Volta, Burkina Faso achieved independence from France in 1960. With few natural resources and a high population density, the people of Burkina Faso are some of the poorest in West Africa and the world. Many must travel to neighboring Cote d'Ivoire or Ghana to find work. The problems facing the people of Burkina Faso are not easy, but The Carter Center hopes that through a partnership with the government of Burkina Faso, agricultural development and disease eradication programming will empower the nation.

Fighting Disease

Guinea Worm Eradication Program

Current status: Transmission stopped, November 2006

Certification of Dracunculiasis Eradication: Pending

The Carter Center's Guinea Worm Eradication Program has worked in conjunction with the government of Burkina Faso and other international organizations to eradicate Guinea worm disease from Burkina Faso since the national program began in 1992. The Burkina Faso program has been a great success: The country reported its last case of Guinea worm disease in Tondia-Kangue village in November 2006

Guinea worm is contracted when humans drink water contaminated with infected larvae of microscopic water-flea like organisms called copepods. One year after the larvae are ingested, a worm up to 1 meter long emerges through a blister in the victim's skin, causing fever, nausea, and other symptoms. A child suffers and is unable to attend school, work, or play. A parent suffers and is unable to harvest crops or care for younger children. Guinea worm cripples the entire community.

When the program began, more than 600 communities in Burkina Faso were endemic to Guinea worm disease. To eradicate the disease, Burkina Faso would face several major obstacles: the inaccessibility of certain endemic villages due to poor road conditions during the rainy season, which also would be peak transmission season for Guinea worm disease; the need to provide safe water to certain populations who might not otherwise be able to acquire it; and mobilization of communities to contain and report all cases of the disease.

Approaches to prevent and eradicate Guinea worm disease in Burkinabe communities address these concerns through health education, distribution of nylon filters used to strain out the microscopic organisms hosting the larvae, monthly ABATE® larvicide treatments of stagnant ponds, direct advocacy with water organizations, and increased efforts to build safer hand-dug wells. Village volunteers, who are trained, supplied, and supervised by the program, carry out monthly surveillance and interventions.

However, the importation of Guinea worm disease into Burkina Faso from other endemic countries complicates eradication efforts. In 2006 and 2007 Burkina Faso has reported imported cases from countries including Mali, Ghana, and Cote d'Ivoire.

Complete elimination depends on Burkina Faso's ability to monitor and report the importation and exportation of Guinea worm cases across its borders as well as in all local districts, whether believed to be endemic or not.

Burkina Faso's success at eradicating Guinea worm inspires other nations struggling with the disease as well as the Burkinabe people. Now that Guinea worm has been defeated, perhaps other problems may be solved with the same dedication. The Carter Center hopes Guinea worm's eradication will represent empowerment and achievement for the Burkinabe people.

UPDATED MAY 2008

Learn more about the Carter Center's Guinea Worm Eradication Program.


Increasing Food Production

Working hand in hand with the Burkina Faso Ministry of Agriculture, The Carter Center began helping Burkinabe farmers improve agricultural development in 1997. The program in Burkina Faso is part of a larger partnership led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Norman Borlaug called Sasakawa-Global 2000, a joint venture between the Carter Center's Agriculture Program and the Sasakawa Africa Association. Since Sasakawa-Global 2000's inception in 1986, more than 4 million African farm families have learned new farming techniques that allow them to double or triple grain production.

Burkina Faso is a dry area with erratic rainfall, where the staple food crops are millet, sorghum, and maize. In the past, soil degradation in Burkina Faso led to the abandonment of land. Now, because of population pressure, the recovery of abandoned farming land has become a priority. However, Burkina's climate and lack of rainfall make cultivation of a good harvest difficult. In these rural areas, farming is not only an employment; it is also necessary for survival, as most of a farmer's harvest is food for his or her family. Poor crop yields first and foremost mean less to eat.

To address the needs of Burkina Faso's farmers, The Carter Center and the Burkina Faso Ministry of Agriculture instituted an agricultural development program. The system gave farmers credit for fertilizers and seeds to grow production test plots. These test plots would allow farmers to experiment with a new type of crop, fertilizer, or planting methods to better cultivate and diversify their farms. Following successful harvests, farmers would teach their neighbors about these new technologies, creating a ripple effect to stimulate food self-sufficiency in the nation.

One success of this program is the story of Boala, a village close to the Burkina Faso-Ghana border. At the center of a cotton-growing area, Boala's main food crops were millet, sorghum, and rice, with only a little maize planted in scattered, weed-infested fields.

The program began by offering two varieties of maize - quality protein maize, or obatanpa, and Streak Resistant 21, a type of maize useful during dry seasons in Burkina -- to 50 farmers in the area. With guidance from the Ministry of Agriculture's extension staff, the farmers of Boala protected their fields before cultivating them by building dykes to reduce soil erosion. They also built phosphate-rock-enriched compost pits to provide another source of fertile soil. Then the recommended seeds and fertilizer were applied to the fields. Farmers from neighboring villages were organized to coordinate their planting together on "field days." Participants of the program have responded enthusiastically to the methods and new crops.

Today, as a result of the popularity of the introduced methods and crops, the farming landscape is rapidly changing. Boala now has become a focal point for the sale of obatanpa and SR 21 maize variety seed. The number of participating farmers also has increased from the beginning group of 50 in 1996 to nearly 500 in 1997 and more than 1,000 in 1998. The program itself also has spread from Boala to 281 villages.

The program's incorporation of adapted grain varieties developed by the Institute for the Environment and Agricultural Research now has made year-round cultivation of maize possible on Burkinabe farms. Additionally, the promotion of small-scale irrigation, also intended to combat drought, has bolstered intensive maize farming. As a result of these efforts, maize is increasingly replacing sorghum and millet in the Burkinabe diet.

Due to these efforts, the looming shadow of hunger is dissipating. During the last five years, Burkina Faso has had a grain surplus that matches more than 43 percent of the population's consumption needs. Further, the 2002-2003 farming season in Burkina Faso achieved a record production of 3,647,000 tons of cereals - millet, sorghum, maize, rice, and fonio.

Several factors have contributed to this success, including: a good rainfall, increased use of improved natural fertilizers, enhanced seeds, and small-scale irrigation at the village level.

Grain is so abundant that Burkina Faso currently accounts for more than a quarter of total grain production and 65 percent of maize cultivation among the nine SG 2000-participant nations. However, there is currently an urgent need to manage these harvests so that some may be put aside and stored for use in less successful seasons when hunger may return to Burkina Faso.

Thus, although adopting new technologies to improve crop yields is helping to improve agricultural development in Burkina Faso, it is only half the battle. Farmers then must find ways to sell their surplus crops. For this reason, the program also helps identify local markets for these surpluses because transporting them can be costly and inefficient. Projects also focus on post-harvest technologies, including methods for processing and storing. Neighboring countries in the program that share crop seasons are encouraged to foster lasting cooperative efforts.

Learn more about the Carter Center's Agriculture Program.