HORIZONS PROJECT
New Approaches to Integrating STIs/HIV/AIDS, Family Planning, and Reproductive Health in Bazèga, Burkina Faso

In response to Burkina Faso’s poor reproductive and general health indicators, including one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the world, the Population Council worked with the Ministry of Health and local organizations to create a Laboratoire de Santé Communautaire (Laboratory of Community Health, or LSC). One goal of the LSC was to develop a knowledge base for designing approaches to improve reproductive health (RH) in rural Burkina Faso that could be tested experimentally by assessing various aspects of RH services. This assessment, which comprised six individual studies, focused on the community, clinics, existing community-based distributor program, and various community development associations in Bazèga.

Lessons learned include:

• The community-based service delivery experiment in Bazèga did result in higher contraceptive prevalence rates, but these remained under 10 percent.
• Bazèga residents frequently cited lack of availability and expense of medical services and supplies.
• Among Bazèga residents, there were difficulties acknowledging and seeking treatment for STIs, in part due to a lack of knowledge.
• Research revealed some possible avenues for further improvements in RH services and outcomes, such as expanded services at rural health centers and an expanded role of community health distributors (counseling, support, referrals, and so forth).
• Both women and men agreed that men have some role to play in RH, particularly surrounding pregnancy, although women reported that men often do not execute this role.
• Awareness of HIV and AIDS appeared to be high, even if steps to stop its transmission were lagging.

The assessment helped to contribute to a better understanding of several aspects of reproductive health and of the associated health-seeking behavior in rural Burkina Faso. The results from the six studies have been disseminated to the Ministry of Health and other interested parties in Burkina Faso, with recommendations for action. A World Bank loan to the government of Burkina Faso supported further program development.

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Location

Bazèga, Burkina Faso

Duration

August 1999–July 2000

Horizons and Population Council researchers

Placide Tapsoba, Ian Askew, Inoussa Kaboré, Andrew Fisher, Ellen Weiss

Non-Council collaborators

Burkina Faso Ministry of Health

Directorate of Family Health

Laboratoire de Santé Communautaire

Unité d’Enseignement et de Recherche

University of Ouagadougou, Mwangaza

Donors

US Agency for International Development

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

United Nations Population Fund

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See Also

• Burkina Faso

• Horizons Program

• FRONTIERS Program

• Poverty, Gender, and Youth Program

• Reproductive Health/Men and Reproductive Health

• HIV and AIDS

• HIV and AIDS/Prevention

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