Burkina Faso NCDI Poverty Commission Convenes for Situation Analysis Meeting

Members of the Burkina Faso Commission welcome Emmanuel Mensah (second from left), West Africa regional advisor for the NCDI Poverty Network, to their initial situation analysis of the country’s NCD burden.

Members of the Burkina Faso NCDI Poverty Commission met at the Ministry of Health offices in Ouagadougou in early May to review national NCDI data as part of an initial situation analysis.

Centre de recherche en santé de Nouna, the research organization that hosts the Commission, had access to significantly more primary data on the NCD burden in Burkina Faso than tends to be available to other national NCDI Poverty Commissions. The data indicated that the NCD burden in Burkina Faso is increasing, with limited services currently available for cancers, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases. The prevalence of hypertension increased from 17.6 percent to 18.2 percent between 2013 and 2021. In that same time period, the prevalence of screened diabetes jumped from 4.9 percent to 7.6 percent.

During the meeting, participants reviewed the draft situation analysis based on these data and discussed the need to expand the national NCDI agenda. They noted their commitment to prioritizing more severe NCDs that affect Burkinabes, including sickle cell disease, hemophilia, kidney diseases, and trauma.

In advance of meeting again for a priority-setting workshop, Burkina Faso Commission members presented their initial findings to other national commissions at the NCDI Poverty Network’s Learning Workshop on May 31.