Advocacy for better nutrition in Burkina Faso

In Right2Grow, we work with a large network of international and national civil society partners. Each of these employ extraordinary professionals that bring expertise in areas like nutrition, WASH, governance, advocacy, and gender. Meet Béatrice Kaboré of RESONUT in Burkina Faso.

Promoting dialogue and coordination between nutrition organisations

"My name is Beatrice Kaboré, I am the advocacy and communication officer of the Civil Society Network for Nutrition (RESONUT) in Burkina Faso. The objective of this network is to promote dialogue and coordination of civil society actions to influence decision makers in favour of improving the nutritional status of the population in Burkina Faso.  Today, the network has 42 member organisations, including both community based organisations, national organisations like the association of nutrition journalists and several international organisations such as Action Against Hunger, Save the Children and Helen Keller International.”

Coordination within the government needed for better nutrition 

RESONUT has advocated for a new central anchor for nutrition at the government to bring together all the different ministries. The proposed multisectoral coordination in nutrition is inspired by the experiences of several countries. Béatrice: “Placing the coordination of nutrition at a supra-ministerial level would allow to make the fight against malnutrition a national priority, to have a stronger political commitment, better allocation of resources to nutrition, etc." 

 How to convince decision makers?

"For example, if we want to advocate for nutrition funding, we conduct studies that give us evidence. With these study results, we organise advocacy with political authorities to explain the situation and get their commitment. We organise for example workshops, advocacy dinners, press conferences, and marches. We also use the media to broadcast radio and TV programmes, spots, songs, and messages from nutrition champions.” 

The challenges related to malnutrition are enormous. We need to redouble our efforts and be persistent.

Right2Grow will make civil society stronger

"The Right2Grow partnership places a strong emphasis on local civil society and community-based organisations. At the end of the five years, I hope that all the organisations that the project will help to strengthen will be sufficiently autonomous and master, for example, advocacy techniques, analysis techniques and budget monitoring, so that at the level of a given municipality or province, they can carry out their own initiatives with the political authorities in favor of nutrition."

Undernutrition as a driving force

"My motivation when I get up in the morning, I think about malnourished children, how much we can and should do for them. A lot has already been done in the field, but more needs to be done. The challenges related to malnutrition are enormous. We need to redouble our efforts and be persistent, so that in the end, even if an advocacy action takes 2 or 3 years, there will be a favorable decision that will contribute to reducing child malnutrition in children under 5. Even if the fruits of advocacy are slow to ripen, even if there are difficulties along the way, even if we have to start over, change strategies, etc. in the end, we remain hopeful that the right decision we are waiting for will be made. "