SQUEAC Report, Ds de Gourcy, Burkina Faso, September 2015

Since 2014, Helen Keller International (HKI) Burkina has been implementing a project to prevent and treat malnutrition in the Gourcy Health District. This is a research project whose research component is led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), while the implementation component is carried out by HKI. It is funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC, formerly DFATD). The program covers the district’s 33 Health and Social Promotion Centers (CSPS) and operates within an integrated system.

The Gourcy health district is located in northern Burkina Faso, 140 km from the capital Ouagadougou. It corresponds to the territorial boundaries of Zondoma Province and covers an area of 2,017 km². The climate there is of the Sudano-Sahelian type. The district’s total population for 2015 is estimated at 214,978 inhabitants. 50.16% of the population is under 15 years of age, and 60.82% is under 20; women account for 53.44% 1 of the population.

Coverage is the key factor in assessing the effectiveness of an intervention. Several factors can hinder accessibility and reduce a program’s coverage. The survey method based on a semi-quantitative assessment of accessibility and coverage (SQUEAC) provides a classification of coverage and a ranking of the main barriers at the level of Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition (IMAM) services , particularly the Outpatient Management (OPM) component for children with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM).

This investigation took place from September 3 to 26, 2015, with direct support from the CMN (Coverage Monitoring Network). The coverage rate of the PCIMA program is estimated at 53.1% (43.2%–62.7%). This rate is above the Sphere2 standards, which are 50% in rural areas, and is higher than the (current) coverage in the DS of Gourcy, which had been classified as “low” during the SLEAC conducted in 2014 in the northern health region