January 23, 2014, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso: The United States Government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has launched Agir pour la Planification Familiale (AgirPF), a five-year regional family planning project to be implemented in five countries: Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mauritania, Niger, and Togo.

To respond to the high unmet need for family planning in West Africa and recognizing the region’s growing urbanization, AgirPF aims to increase access to and use of quality family planning services in urban areas using hospitals and health centers as well as mobile outreach and community-based services. More specifically, AgirPF will: 1) expand access to family planning counseling and a range of contraceptive methods; 2) promote healthy family planning behaviors; and 3) increase awareness of the benefits of family planning.

“We at USAID/West Africa are pleased to have established and maintained a positive and productive working relationship with the government of Burkina Faso through our previous assistance in health,” said Bradley Wallach, USAID West Africa Acting Mission Director.  “AgirPF will directly contribute to achieving the objectives set out in the national plan for family planning that was developed with USAID support. We look forward to working closely with the Burkina government to jointly monitor progress towards the plan.”

USAID designed AgirPF to support the member countries of the Ouagadougou Partnership for Repositioning Family Planning in Francophone West Africa, who pledged to reach an additional one million women and couples with family planning methods by 2015.  AgirPF, implemented by EngenderHealth together with Futures Institute and EXP Agency, will build upon the successful USAID-funded RESPOND project in Burkina Faso, which focused on collaborating with community radio stations to raise awareness about family planning and training providers to improve quality of services. These activities will now be expanded in Burkina Faso and the other four project countries.