Food Assistance Fact Sheet - Burkina Faso

Map of Burkina Faso
September 30, 2019
 
Increasing conflict has led to a deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Burkina Faso in recent months, forcing people from their homes and exacerbating needs. Additionally, limited livelihoods opportunities and recurrent environmental shocks like floods contribute to hunger in the country.      

Situation  

  • Rising insecurity, primarily in northern and eastern Burkina Faso, is prompting population displacement.  As of September 23, the UN reported an estimated 290,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs); however, relief actors note that due to escalating violence, as many as 500,000 Burkinabe may be displaced in northern Burkina Faso—an area that also hosts approximately 31,000 Malian refugees—by October.
  • Overall, 1.3 million people in Burkina Faso urgently require humanitarian assistance in 2019 due to the effects of conflict, food insecurity, malnutrition and natural disasters, a July update to the country’s 2019 Humanitarian Response Plan reports.
  • According to a March Cadre Harmonisé (CH) analysis, approximately 687,000 people—3 percent of the population— were in urgent need of food assistance from June–August, a period which includes the lean season when food is scarcest.*  
  • The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) anticipates that Crisis (IPC 3) levels of food insecurity will likely persist for vulnerable and conflict-affected households through January 2020, primarily as a result of insecurity, displacement, loss of livelihoods, and limited access to markets.

* The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) is a standardized tool that aims to classify the severity and magnitude of acute food insecurity. The IPC scale, which is comparable across countries, ranges from Minimal (IPC 1) to Famine (IPC 5). The CH, a similar tool used in West Africa, has a separate scale ranging from Minimal (Phase 1) to Famine (Phase 5).

Response

  • USAID’s Office of Food for Peace (FFP) enables the UN World Food Program to provide food assistance to vulnerable Malian refugees and Burkinabe through in-kind food distributions, cash-based transfers, and asset-building activities that strengthen livelihoods.  FFP also works with the UN Children’s Fund to furnish locally bought ready-to-use therapeutic food to 19,000 severely malnourished children.  
  • FFP partners with Oxfam Intermón to deliver cash-based food assistance to more than 43,000 crisis-affected people in northern Burkina Faso.  Additionally, in coordination with USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, FFP supports Catholic Relief Services in reaching 28,000 beneficiaries in Sanmatenga Province with cash-based transfers.
  • FFP recently began a five-year, $50 million development activity with ACDI/VOCA to improve food security and resilience—the ability to respond to crises—among chronically vulnerable Burkinabe families in Center-North Region.  A central component of the USAID Resilience in the Sahel Enhanced (RISE) II initiative, this intervention works across multiple sectors, including agriculture, disaster risk management, health, livelihoods, nutrition, and water and sanitation.

Food for Peace Contributions

Total Contributions:

  U.S. Dollars Metric Tons
Fiscal Year 2019 $20.7 million 4,961 MT
Fiscal Year 2018 $22.9 million 9,063 MT
Fiscal Year 2017 $21.2 million 590 MT

* Metric tonnage does not reflect funding for vouchers or cash transfers. 

 

Country Specific Guidance

Last updated: October 25, 2019

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