USAID in Burkina Faso
In June 2009, USAID reestablished an official presence in Ouagadougou by assigning an American contract employee as Country Program Manager for Burkina Faso and opening a small office within the U.S. Embassy.
Since 2004, USAID Burkina Faso has supported a number of PL 480 non-emergency assistance programs that focus on agricultural productivity and maternal and child health. The program currently has an annual budget of $15 million, and a new five-year phase is scheduled to begin in 2010.
Since late 2005, USAID has been responsible for a MCC-financed girls’ education program, that has focused on building 132 girl-friendly school complexes in rural communities located in 10 provinces. This includes a $12.9 million first phase that ended in late 2008, and a three-year $28.9 million second phase that begins in 2009.
USAID will mount in late 2009 a malaria control project that will support the Burkinabe government’s national malaria strategy. This five-year program has received an initial tranche of funding ($6 million).
Burkina Faso regularly receives assistance from USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). In 2009, OFDA approved four grants to various organizations working in Burkina Faso worth a total of about $8.9 million, as part of its response to the impact of the global high food price crisis. In addition, OFDA recently provided $250,000 in emergency funding for the purchase of vaccines in response to an unusual outbreak of measles in Burkina Faso.
USAID provided $250,000 in PEPFAR funding in FY 2008 to support an HIV/AIDS workplace project implemented by the U.S. Department of Labor, which provided a like amount of funding.. USAID also seeks to collaborate with two CDC staff based in WHO offices in Ouagadougou who focus on the control of specific diseases (meningitis, polio, measles), and with the new office of the African Development Foundation that established a presence in Burkina Faso in 2009.
Burkina Faso also benefits from several regional USG programs implemented by USAID. These include: West Africa Cotton Initiative Program; Agribusiness Trade Promotion Program; West Arica Seed Alliance; West Africa Trade Hub; FEWSNET; CILSS; Neglected Tropical Diseases; Avian Flu; and, the Africa Girls’ Scholarship Program. Also, USAID will launch in 2009 an International Water Management Institute project that will focus on rehabilitating irrigations systems in Burkina Faso and Niger. Also in 2009, USAID will start a second phase of its reproductive health project (AWARE) and USAID is considering Burkina Faso as a focus country for a new family planning program. AWARE will work with the ECOWAS Health Secretariat providing capacity building assistance to the West African Health Organization (WAHO) center that is based in Bobo Dioulasso. This center has benefitted substantially in the past from USAID.
