Helen Keller International's Enhanced-Homestead Food Production Program in Burkina Faso

Helen Keller International (HKI) has been implementing homestead food production (HFP)
programs in Asia for the past 20 years and has recently begun implementing HFP programs in
Africa as well. In general, these programs target women and are designed to improve maternal
and child health and nutrition outcomes through three primary pathways: 1. Increasing the
availability of micronutrient-rich foods through increased household production of these
foods; 2. Raising income through the sale of surplus production; and 3. Increasing knowledge
and adoption of optimal nutrition practices, including the consumption of micronutrient-rich
foods. Evaluations of HFP programs have consistently demonstrated significant increases in
household production and consumption of micronutrient-rich foods. This increased
consumption, along with improvements in health and nutrition related knowledge, and
increased income, could all contribute to improvements in maternal and child health and
nutrition outcomes. However, to date there has been limited understanding as to how these
types of programs can be optimized to maximize impacts on these outcomes.

In order to better understand the potential of these types of programs to improve maternal
and child health and nutrition outcomes and how this impact may be achieved IFPRI has been
collaborating with HKI to evaluate one of their E-HFP programs in Burkina Faso. The
evaluation considers impact of the program through the three pathways above, and assesses
anthropometric and clinical measures of nutrition, as well as looking at how the programs
might be improved.