Burundi
Years of conflict and endemic poverty in Burundi have resulted in a fragile health system with limited reach throughout the country. In rural areas, lack of services perpetuates high maternal and child mortality rates as Burundians struggle with health challenges such as malaria and malnutrition. Aggravating these problems is the frequently poor quality of services available in facilities that are poorly equipped and understaffed. The government has adopted a national, comprehensive strategy to integrate management of child illnesses with other key concerns such as poor rates of immunization, antenatal care, and assisted births. However, continued poor quality of services available in facilities that are poorly equipped and understaffed has limited the success of the strategy.
Since 2007, Pathfinder has been working with the Burundian government to improve the quality of maternal and child health services by creating demand for maternal child health services and by building the capacity of the health system to effectively deliver quality services to meet the demand.
Of particular importance for Pathfinder’s work in Burundi is service integration. Pathfinder Burundi’s overarching strategy to improve integration of health services is defined by two guiding principles: Support the health system decentralization efforts by ensuring that the health districts are functional and ensuring communities are involved in the management of the health system; and support the health system’s capacity to make information quickly shareable to ensure that it is responsive to governmental, implementer, and the public’s needs.
Pathfinder Burundi achieves these principles by assisting in the reform of the health sector. Pathfinder supports the Ministry of Health in seeing that the necessary physical infrastructure of health district offices and hospitals is in place. Quality of care is not only dependent on facilities but the people that operate them, so we also help recruit and train technical staff at the districts levels.
Noteworthy improvements to Burundian healthcare to which Pathfinder has made a leading contribution include:
- 17 health facilities with all the 25 performance-based financing (PBF) monitoring indicators showed a difference of less than 5% between verified and reported data
- 926,055 long lasting insecticide-treated nets were distributed with Pathfinder's Maternal and Child Health Program support
- 58,710 children received all vaccines required within 1 year
Our Projects
Integrated Health Project in Burundi
Pathfinder’s five-year Integrated Health Project brings together the successes of previous Pathfinder-led maternal and child health, and performance-based financing projects, and a large HIV care and treatment project.
Evidence to Action for Strengthened Family Planning and Reproductive Health Services for Women and Girls (E2A)
The Evidence to Action Project (E2A) is USAID’s global flagship for strengthening family planning and reproductive health service delivery.
Related Publications
Change Starts Here: Pathfinder International 2014 Annual Report
We believe change starts with expertly trained providers and pharmacies that never run out of supplies. It starts with open conversations among women, young people, men, religious leaders, mothers-in-law, policymakers, and others, joining to discuss their beliefs and remove barriers to their health and well-being. Our 2014 Annual Report shows a few highlights of how Pathfinder has served as a catalyst for change over the past year.
TRAIL Behavior Change Intervention Videos (Multiple Languages)
A TRAIL intervention in Burundi focused on three behavioral objectives; for each objective a video was produced using information from Pathways to Change to illustrate the problems associated with the objective.
Food for Thought (French)
A TRAIL intervention in Burundi focused on three behavioral objectives; for each objective a video was produced using information from Pathways to Change to illustrate the problems associated with the objective.
Janet's Choice
A TRAIL intervention in Burundi focused on three behavioral objectives; for each objective a video was produced using information from Pathways to Change to illustrate the problems associated with the objective.