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FP/RH Champion Spotlight: Living Goods Burkina Faso


Knowledge SUCCESS loves feedback from our readers. We want to hear how our resources benefit your work, how we can improve, and your ideas for the site. Recently, you’ve mentioned wanting more insights specific to your countries and the context you work in. Say no more! We’ll be featuring organizations working at the national level in a series called “FP/RH Champion Spotlight.” Our goal is to spark new partnerships and give well-deserved credit to those advancing family planning and reproductive health with a regional focus.

This week, our featured organization is Living Goods Burkina Faso.

FP/RH Champion Spotlight banner with blue highlights behind the words FP/RH Champion Spotlight. Spotlight graphics are in the four corners of the rectangular graphic.

Organization

Living Goods Burkina Faso

Location

Burkina Faso

The Work

Working side-by-side with committed governments, implementers, and funders, Living Goods aims to save lives at scale by supporting digitally-empowered community health workers (CHWs). With its support, these local women and men are transformed into frontline health workers who can deliver on-demand, life-saving care to families in need. They go door-to-door treating sick children, supporting pregnant mothers, counseling women on modern family planning choices, educating families on better health, and delivering high-impact medicines and health commodities.

Community health worker Betty speaks with a mother (Florence) and daughter (Rachael) about different family planning methods. They sit in soft green grass, surrounded by lush shrubbery.
CHW Betty sensitizes Rachael and her mother Florence about the different family planning methods in Mpigi, Uganda. Credit: Living Goods

Strong, formalized community health programs can save lives, but they are often underfunded, disjointed, poorly managed, and understocked. In Burkina Faso, many people lack access to basic health care, and according to the Lancet, more than 10% of children died before their fifth birthday in 2019.

Under an initial three-year agreement with the Burkina Faso Ministry of Health, Living Goods will provide technical assistance to strengthen community health care and integrate it into the primary health care system while fostering an enabling environment for long-term, government-led sustainability.

Living Goods uses data-driven performance management, incentive systems, regular in-service training, and supportive supervision to support governments to ensure CHWs can deliver high-quality primary health care services—including family planning and reproductive health care. CHWs increase the use of contraception, especially where unmet need is high, access is low, and geographic and social barriers exist.

  • Improving access and filling gaps: CHWs provide a range of family planning services safely and effectively, ensuring that women can make informed choices and enjoy increased access to affordable options. In Uganda, CHWs trained and supported by Living Goods to deliver family planning services reached 47% of women of reproductive age in their communities.
  • Overcoming physical obstacles: CHWs bring services and supplies to women where they live and work, saving them trips to health facilities that may be far away or inaccessible. They also help clients navigate health systems by keeping track of facilities with long-term methods and providing referral follow-ups and reminders.
  • Addressing social barriers: CHWs come from the communities they serve and have long-standing relationships with their clients, built on trust. This means they are well-placed to provide education on family planning, overcome myths and misconceptions, and stimulate behavior change over time.

Want More from Living Goods?

Check back soon for a new FP/RH Champion Spotlight organization!

Tykia Murray

Former Managing Editor of Digital Content, Knowledge SUCCESS

Tykia Murray is a former Managing Editor of Digital Content for Knowledge SUCCESS, a five-year global project led by a consortium of partners and funded by USAID’s Office of Population and Reproductive Health to support learning and create opportunities for collaboration and knowledge exchange within the family planning and reproductive health community. Tykia holds a BA in Writing from Loyola University Maryland and an MFA from the University of Baltimore's Creative Writing & Publishing Arts program.