Note: The menu shows the 36 African countries where Africare has worked, not the other African countries.

 

Burkina Faso (Map courtesy of The World Factbook)

Burkina Faso

REGION: West Africa
CAPITAL CITY: Ouagadougou
POPULATION: 12,822,000
LAND AREA: The size of Virginia and West Virginia combined

Landlocked, with an arid climate and limited natural resources, Burkina Faso has been plagued for decades by drought. Today, water scarcity and the erosion of other natural resources remain major challenges, as do food shortage and malnutrition. About 18 percent of the land is arable. Some 90 percent of the Burkinabe are engaged in subsistence agriculture and thus remain consistently vulnerable to the effects of drought. Burkina Faso is the second least-developed country in the world, according to the U.N. Development Program's 2007/2008 Human Development Index. Cotton is the main cash crop; the country also has significant reserves of gold.

 

Country Stats

Life expectancy: 51.4 years (USA: 77.9)

Under-5 child mortality: 191/1,000 live births (USA: 7/1,000)

HIV prevalence, ages 15-49: [1.5 - 2.5]% (USA: [0.4 - 1.0]%)

Physicians per 100,000 people: 5 (USA: 256)

People undernourished: 15% (USA: 0%)

People with access to safe drinking water: 61% (USA: 100%)

Adult literacy: 23.6% (USA: 99%)

Annual income, one way to look at it (GDP per capita, PPP US$): $1,213 (USA: $41,890)

Annual income, another way to look at it (GDP per capita): $391 (USA: $41,890)

People living on less than $1 a day: 27.2% (USA: 0%)

(HIV prevalence statistics, UNAIDS. All other statistics, 2007/2008 Human Development Report, UNDP)

 

(Updated, Dec. 18, 2007)