SAVEVEG West Africa is implemented by the World Vegetable Center in collaboration with WUR and CIRAD with government and NGO partners, financed by the EU and the government of the Netherlands.

We believe in a future with improved lives and livelihoods, and fortunately, this is often the case. But sometimes we also lose something of the past which once benefited us. In Burkina Faso, we see that traditional diets included more healthy green leafy vegetables than today. Can we bring these benefits back into contemporary diets?

In the SAFEVEG Program we promote the consumption of more safe and nutritious vegetables, in Benin, Burkina Faso and Mali. When taking on this responsibility in 2021, we came to discover that we did not understand so well the consumers and what their preferences are. Searching through all of the literature helped to show us some general patterns, but there were clearly large gaps in our knowledge of consumer behavior in the three countries. What we did find is that consumption of vegetables is far below recommended levels. The World Health Organization recommends that every person consumes at least 400 grams of fruits and vegetables every day – or roughly four to five portions. But in Burkina Faso, people only consume less than a quarter of this amount, the lowest of any West African country. So, we have a mission, and there is work to be done!

In Burkina’s capital city Ouagadougou where we focus our consumer-oriented activities, street food vendors are very important in providing affordable meals to low-income consumers. A mapping and survey among these vendors revealed that most of their clients are young laborers, shopkeepers, contract workers, students, and people without stable work. These meals are high in calories, but low in nutritional value. An average plate consists of rice with sauce, and sometimes a small portion of cabbage. It costs only FCFA 150 ($0.25), but lacks especially micronutrients and protein that are indispensable for assuring good health.

In Burkina Faso, traditional sauces made with green leafy vegetables are still prepared, but these are mainly consumed in rural areas and have largely disappeared from modern dishes in the cities. Is the preparation of such sauces too time consuming, are the ingredients not available or too expensive, or do younger generations of consumers have other dietary preferences?

To see how we can effectively bring green leafy vegetables back into modern dishes, we are going to work with 15 street food vendors who will offer a healthy sauce based on these vegetables to their clients, and explain to them the health benefits. How will these clients respond to such an offering? Will they like the healthy sauce, and will they be willing to pay a little extra for it?

These are all exciting questions that are at the heart of consumer realities in Burkina Faso. The SAFEVEG program is striving to make a difference by conducting action research that delivers meaningful results which development partners can then take to scale. We will keep you updated as we unravel the root causes of why the healthy green leafy vegetables have disappeared from modern dishes, and how we will bring them back on the menu.