Sahel terrorist crisis and development priorities: case of financial allocations for the control of non-communicable diseases in Burkina Faso.

In Africa, nearly 46% of all mortality will be attributed to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by 2030. While the cost of inaction far exceeds the cost of action against NCDs, global funding for the prevention and control of NCDs is minimal. The objective of this was to explore the Ministry of Health budget allocations for NCDs from 2010 to 2020 as well as the effect of the terrorism crisis on these allocations. The methodology was based on the budget tracking tool developed by the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement. Twenty-nine budget lines related to the prevention and/or control of NCDs have been identified. About 29.9 million USD were allocated to the fight against NCDs with an absorption rate of more than 98%.There is an upward trend of allocated budget characterized by an exponential increase from the development of the national integrated strategic plan for the fight against NCDs (2016-2020). In 2017, an increase of 184% compared to 2016 was observed. However, the efforts were challenged by the emergence of the terrorist threat which triggered in January 2016, leading to a drastic reduction in allocations for NCDs in favor likely of defense and security priorities as well as addressing the needs of internally displaced persons. A trend analysis suggests that the NCDs budget significantly decrease as the country global terrorist index increase. Further analysis is needed to better understand the implication on NCD incidence, and identify advocacy opportunities for mitigating the negative impact of the terrorist treat on NCDs and other development issues.

Field-based assessment of the design of lysimeters for landfill final cover seepage control.

Lysimeters are considered the most appropriate instrument for assessing percolations rates through landfill final covers. Their design, however, must take into consideration the unsaturated nature of water seepage, otherwise they may act as a sink or cause flow avoidance. The aim of this study was to investigate whether using a simple approach to lysimeter design produces reliable seepage control data. Two different design methods were compared using a three-year field database of suction and seepage data collected from large-scale lysimeters installed at the St-Nicephore landfill in Canada. The first, or control, whose side walls were as high as the thickness of the cover material, was inspired from lysimeters installed during the Alternative Cover Assessment Program (ACAP; USA). The second lysimeter was designed based on the proposed simple design methodology, which focuses on the unsaturated flow and hydraulic properties of the materials to determine the optimal wall height. Analysis of the database did not show any indication of significant preferential flow, or alteration of the flow regime by the second lysimeter, which collected as much percolation as the control one (less than 5% difference). The linear method has not been tested for extreme climatic conditions and the wall heights calculated using this method may be very high when designed for very fine-grained soil covers.

Policy overview of the multisectoral nutrition planning process: The progress, challenges, and lessons learned from Burkina Faso.

INTRODUCTION: Malnutrition is a multifactorial problem, and multisectoral planning is an indispensable tool. The objective of this study was (a) to evaluate the extent to which nutrition is integrated into policies and (b) to describe the process used by the government of Burkina Faso to reform its policy frameworks and multisectoral nutrition planning. METHODS: This was a qualitative study, and data were collected in two key steps: first, through a policy overview conducted in 2015 and, second, in November 2017, through a document review and individual stakeholder interviews with 32 key actors involved in national nutrition planning. RESULTS: The extent to which nutrition is integrated into development policies varied from one sector to another. Since 2014, Burkina Faso has initiated nutrition planning through a multisectoral approach involving six sectors. This process was implemented in three key stages. Progress includes revision of national nutrition policy towards multisectoral perspective, formulation of a consensual and quality multisectoral nutrition strategic plan, creation of nutrition budget line, and establishment of nutrition technical secretariat. CONCLUSION: To improve the anchoring of multisectoral coordination bodies at the supra-ministerial level, mobilizing resources and promoting sector accountability are key next steps that would contribute to the success of the implementation.