[Burkina Faso] Supporting improvement in food and nutrition

August 14, 2019

Burkina Faso is an inland country in the center of western Africa. It is surrounded by six countries, including Mali and Côte d'Ivoire. Located on the tropical belt, its northern region lies on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert and is classified as the Sahelian zone, whereas the southern region gets more rainfall and is divided into the north-sudanian and the south-sudanian zones. Despite being an agricultural country, with approximately 80 percent of its working population engaged in farming, Burkina Faso is facing food security issues. The country's natural environment is harsh due to low precipitation, and occurrence of droughts and floods caused by climate changes in recent years has posed a further challenge to securing stable production.

Burkina Faso is facing various development problems and is ranked extremely low at 183 among 189 countries across the world in the 2018 update on Human Development Index, an assessment of the development of a country based on indicators of health, education and income by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

JICA is working in line with the Initiative for Food and Nutrition Security in Africa (IFNA) launched in the 6th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI) and promoting cross-sectoral activities in agriculture, education, health and other areas. We are supporting improvement in food and nutrition in Burkina Faso by collaborating with development partners and private Japanese companies in the field of nutritional improvement using soybeans.