WFP Burkina Faso
Country Brief
July 2024

In Numbers

58%

42%

320,730 people assisted**Preliminary figures

2,290 mt of food distributed
US$ 148 million six-month net funding requirement(August 2024–January 2025)

1`qOperational Updates

Operational Context
Burkina Faso is a semi-arid country in the Sahel, with 40 percent of
its population living below the poverty line. Most people depend on
one season of rain-fed agriculture for their livelihoods, leaving thecountry vulnerable to the impact of climate-related shocks.
Insecurity has caused mass population displacement, with 2 million
people displaced as per the latest official data from March 2023.
Food insecurity remains critical, with conflict and displacement theprimary drivers. The March 2024 Cadre Harmonisé (CH) analysis
indicates that over 2.7 million people face acute food insecurity (CHPhases 3–4) during the lean season between June and August. This
indicates a dramatic increase from the 687,000 figure during thesame period in 2019.
WFP operations include emergency food assistance, school meals,
malnutrition treatment and prevention, safety nets, climateinsurance, national capacity strengthening, asset creation andlivelihoods support through food assistance for assets (FFA) andsmallholder agriculture market support (SAMS) activities. Common
services are provided to the humanitarian community, including
passenger and cargo transport by the United Nations Humanitarian
Air Service (UNHAS).
WFP has been present in Burkina Faso since 1967.

 Findings from a recently published Rapid SMART nutrition survey
in 12 hard-to-reach communes across four conflict-affected
regions revealed a worrying malnutrition situation amongchildren aged 6-59 months. Three communes (Diapaga, Titao,and Mansila) showed global acute malnutrition (GAM) rates
between 10 and 14 percent, indicating a "serious" situationaccording to WHO classification. When considering combined
global acute malnutrition (cGAM), nine communes recorded"serious" malnutrition rates. These communes were Tougan,Diapaga, Pama, Kompienga, Titao, Gorom-Gorom, Markoye,Mansila, and Sebba.
 In hard-to-reach areas inaccessible by land, WFP delivered
assistance via heavy-lift helicopters, airlifting 686 mt of lifesaving food and nutrition commodities to 10 localities across theSahel, Centre-Nord, Est, and Boucle du Mouhoun regions. This
assistance provided a lifeline to 29,510 people, including 6,270
children aged 6-23 months and 1,370 pregnant andbreastfeeding women and girls (PBW/G).
 WFP's crisis response prioritized the most acutely food-insecure
populations, providing unconditional in-kind emergency foodassistance to cover beneficiaries’ basic food needs. However,operational challenges continued to hamper WFP’s lean season
response, which aims to address acute food and nutrition needs
between June and August. Due to extreme access constraints,
WFP could only reach 207,560 food-insecure people during themonth, including 16,420 refugees. Alongside general fooddistributions, WFP also provided specialized nutritious foods toprevent malnutrition, reaching 8,710 children aged 6-23
months (53 percent girls) and 6,580 PBW/G.
 Nutrition messaging from WFP reached 39,660 people (77percent women) to raise awareness on good nutrition, hygiene,and optimal infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices.

Population: 22.5 million

Income Level: Low

2022 Human Development Index:Ranked 185th out of 193 countries
Chronic malnutrition: 21.6 percent ofchildren aged 6 to 59 months

Contact info: Liam Wylie (liam.wylie@wfp.org)
Country Director: Sory Ouane (sory.ouane@wfp.org)

Further information: www.wfp.org/countries/burkina-faso

 Through its moderate acute malnutrition treatment
programme, WFP provided specialized nutritious foods to 78,460
children aged 6-59 months (50 percent girls), and 34,690 PBW/G.
Moreover, 21,460 children aged 6-59 months were screened formalnutrition; detecting 944 cases of moderate and 253 cases ofsevere acute malnutrition.
 WFP provided technical and financial support to the Ministry ofHealth and Public Hygiene's Directorate of Nutrition for thevalidation of the newly developed national guidelines formalnutrition prevention.

Photo Caption: Bags of food commodities are being unloaded from a WFPcontracted helicopter in Diapaga (Est region).
Copyright: WFP/ Liam Wylie

WFP Country Strategy
Country Strategic Plan (2019–2025)
2024 Total
Requirements(US$)

2024 Available
Contributions(US$)

Six-Month Net Funding
Requirements(US$)

401 million

246 million

148 million

Strategic Result 1: Everyone has access to food
Strategic Outcome 1: Crisis affected populations, including refugees, IDPs and hostcommunities in targeted areas are able to meet their basic food and nutrition needs
during and in the aftermath of a crisis
Focus area: Crisis Response
Activities:
 Provide an integrated assistance package including food assistance, school meals,
and specialized nutritious food to refugees, IDPs, host population, children andPBW/Gs affected by climate shocks, conflicts, and other disruptions.
Strategic Outcome 2: Food insecure populations including school-age children, intargeted areas have access to adequate and nutritious food all year-round
Focus area: Resilience Building
Activities:
 Provide school meals to vulnerable children during the primary school year,including take home rations for girls.
 Provide assistance through CBT to beneficiaries targeted by government social
safety nets including capacity strengthening for adolescent girls.
Strategic Result 2: No one suffers for malnutrition
Strategic Outcome 3: Nutritionally vulnerable populations including children aged 6-59
months, pregnant and lactating women and girls (PBW/Gs), antiretroviral therapy (ART)clients, in targeted areas have improved nutritional status all year round
Focus area: Resilience Building
Activities:
 Support beneficiaries through the provision of specialized nutritious food andintegrated programmes (including SBCC) to manage acute malnutrition andprevent stunting.
Strategic Result 4: Food systems are sustainable
Strategic Outcome 4: Smallholder farmers and communities including those affectedby recurrent climate shocks, in targeted areas have more resilient livelihoods andsustainable food systems by 2023
Focus area: Resilience BuildingActivities:
 Support targeted groups through livelihood and asset creation, gender-responsive
and nutrition sensitive value chain development, weather insurance schemes, andinnovative production technologies and practices.
Strategic Result 5: Countries have strengthened capacities to implement SDGs
Strategic Outcome 5: National institutions have strengthened capacities to manage
shock-responsive systems, food security, nutrition and social protection programmes
and policies by 2023
Focus area: Root Causes
Activities:
 Provide capacity-strengthening support including emergency response, early
warning systems, supply chain, National P4P, weather insurance, nutritionsensitive social safety net data collection and management, to national institutions
and partners.
Strategic Result 8: Global partnership support
Strategic Outcome 6: Humanitarian and development partners have access tocommon services to access and operate in targeted areas throughout the year
Focus area: Crisis Response
Activities:
 Provide technical assistance through the Emergency Telecommunications
Sector/cluster to national disaster management offices and other relevantpartners to strengthen communication and coordination mechanisms.
 Provide on-demand services to the Government, humanitarian and development
partners.
 Provide humanitarian air services to national disaster management offices andother relevant partners to access areas of humanitarian interventions.
 Provide logistics expertise and coordination services to partners in absence ofalternatives to ensure humanitarian assistance as well as other supply chain
services to support effective and efficient humanitarian response.

WFP Burkina Faso Country Brief
July 2024

 In July, the provision of school meals was on hold due to theongoing summer break. However, WFP is preparing to provide
school meals to pupils participating in catch-up courses during
August and September.
 With technical and financial support from WFP, the Ministry of
Education organized a workshop to review the National
School Feeding and Nutrition Strategy (SNANS, in French).
 WFP continued its resilience-building programme in theCentre-Nord, Nord, Sahel, Est, Plateau-Central, and Centre-Estregions. Through food assistance for assets (FFA) activities, 133
hectares of degraded land were restored using half-moons andstone bunds, 29 vegetable gardens were established, and fivewater reservoirs were built for irrigation purposes. In addition,over 15,520 smallholder farmers (47 percent of them women)
and 35 producer organizations received agricultural equipment
and inputs, such as forage seeds and organic fertilizer, alongwith training in hydroponic fodder production and milk hygiene.

Research, Assessment and Monitoring A joint market monitoring exercise by WFP and Burkina Faso’s
National Food Security Stock Management Company(SONAGESS, in French) for June showed that staple food prices
remained higher than the five-year average. This was the casefor maize (+26 percent), millet (+30 percent), sorghum (+39percent), and cowpeas (+40 percent). In hard-to-reach areas,
several markets remained dysfunctional, with some remaining
closed for months, while others rely on irregular governmentorganized supply convoys. The irregularity of convoys and lackof stockpiles result in food shortages in places like Diapaga (Estregion), where basic cereals are scarce. Additionally, high prices
make access to food difficult, especially for the most vulnerable
households.

United Nations Humanitarian Air Service(UNHAS)
 UNHAS offered safe and reliable air transport for thehumanitarian community to access people in remote and hardto-reach locations. In July, UNHAS conducted 95 flights, whichtransported 2,087 passengers and 62 mt of light cargo to 26
destinations in Burkina Faso. UNHAS services were provided to92 user organisations, of which 87 percent were NGOs; 12percent were UN agencies, and 1 percent was donor-relatedtravel. UNHAS also conducted three medical evacuations.

Challenges
 WFP staff, contractors, and cooperating partners continue to beaffected by the insecure operational environment. In early July,UNHAS and WFP cargo flights to Djibo and Gorom-Gorom had
to be cancelled due to heightened security risks.
 WFP’s lean season response is severely hampered by extreme
access constraints, particularly in areas with populations facing
emergency levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 4), leading
to limited assistance coverage thus far.

DonorsDonors to WFP’s Burkina Faso Country Strategic Plan (CSP) in 2024
include Austria, Burkina Faso, Canada, Denmark, the EuropeanCommission, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Monaco,Norway, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, and the United States of America. Additional support
was provided by United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund(CERF), and additional private donors.