IVORY COAST BACKGROUND INFORMATION
| Geography | People |
| Status of National Policy | Description of Service Delivery |
| Other Activities | Training and Restrictions |
| IEC | AIDS |
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GEOGRAPHY
Cote d’Ivoire, situated on the northern shore of the gulf of Guinea, is bounded on the west by Liberia and Guinea, on the north by Mali and Burkina Faso, and on the east by Ghana. It is divided into sharply contrasting geographical zones. In the south, where the climate is humid and tropical, lie the great rain forests, which cover 46% of the country, and areas that produce timber, coffee and cocoa, which form a significant part of the country’s economy. In the north lies the drier savanna area where lush subtropical growth, with its variety of flora and fauna, gives way to scrub growth, with a dry wind blowing south from the Sahara Desert. The northern third of the country is given over to scattered agricultural land, producing, in the main, cotton and tobacco.
The climate is tropical. The coastal rainy season extends from May to July and October to November. In central areas the rains come earlier: March-May and July-November. In the north there is only one rainy seaon, July-October.
PEOPLE
Cote d’Ivoire has more than 60 ethnic groups usually classified into seven principal divisions: Akan, Krou, Lagoon, Nuclear Mande, Peripheral Mande, Senoufou, and Lobi. Approximately 20% of the overall population accounts for the Baoule in the Akan division, and is probably the largest single subgroup. They live in the central region around Bouake. The Bete, in the Krou division and the Senoufou in the north are the second and third largest groups, with roughly 18% and 15% of the national population, respectively. Most of the principal divisions have centers in neighboring countries.
Of the more than 5 million non-Ivorian Africans living in Cote d’Ivoire, one-third to one-half are from Burkina Faso; the rest are from Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, Benin, Senegal, Liberia, and Mauritania. A non-African expatriate community includes roughly 18,000 French and at least 100,000 Lebanese.
The number of school aged children attending classes increased from 22% in 1960 to 55% in 1988.
STATUS OF NATIONAL POLICY
Family planning services are not widely available in the Ivory Coast and have only recently been officially permitted by the government. Prior to 1991, the Ivoirian government actively discouraged the development of family planning services. The IPPF affiliate, the Association Ivorienne Pour le Bien-Etre Familial (AIBEF), was prohibited from widely publicizing its services, and the provision of contraceptive methods to public sector MCH clinics was restricted. Until recently, AIBEF had three clinics of its own and assisted one public-sector MCH clinic in Abidjan, as well as three in provincial towns. In addition to AIBEF-run clinics, the only other sources of contraceptive methods before 1991 were pharmacies and private physicians; however, private physicians are prohibitively expensive and extremely few in number, and pharmacies can provide only a limited range of contraceptives without a prescription.
The political environment changed dramatically in early 1991 when the Ivoirian government reversed its position on population policy and family planning. The Ministry of Health presently encourages the development of family planning services through its newly created national family planning coordinator’s office. Five new public sector MCH clinics have since begun to offer family planning services, and a large bilateral project with USAID has begun that will substantially augment and improve the delivery of family planning services in the country.
An official government family planning national policy is currently in the works.
DESCRIPTION OF SERVICE DELIVERY
The Family Planning services provided by AIBEF (in ten private and public facilities, mainly in urban and suburban areas) remain as vertical FP programs. These programs are funded by USAID and executed by USAID hired personnel. All other government facilities work on an integrated plan. During the initial phase, AID resources were concentrated on the private sector and on the only organization which had experience in FP in Cote D’Ivoire (AIBEF). AIBEF has been the pioneer of FP in Cote D’Ivoire since 1986, and built its capability to expand its own private sector program as well as to assist the MOHSP in the development of its program. Only ten health facilities provide FP services (out of 1400).
However, the Africa Operations Research and Technical Assistance Project (see attached literature review), states that AIBEF has begun a service expansion program built around high-volume family planning clinics in the private sector, a limited number of multi-service MCH/FP public-sector clinics, and community based distribution (CBD) activities.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
AID resources also have been oriented toward training activities for health providers, and a CBD program was being initiated at the time funding close out was decided. Some clinical equipment and contraceptives have been supplied to the clinics where AIBEF developed services.
UNFPA: SEATS: Service Delivery
MCH/FP: Strategy Development
Education a la Vie Familiale in secondary schools
USAID: IEC, Training (INTRAH), CBD, equipment contraceptives
-Pathfinder and FPIA: IEC, CBD and clinical services
-JHPIEGO: IEC
-JSI/SEATS: service delivery
-AIBEF: provision of clinical services in 6 clinics (3 in Abidjan)
Training
Fifty-four percent of personel has been trained in practical family planning (1994).
Restrictions
Female sterilization permitted only for medical reasons.
Cote D’Ivoire is endowed with extensive and gernerally high quality IEC resources. Radio, television, press, cinema and outdoor media coverage are respectable. Media professionals are generally well trained, and have demonstrated a healthy professional interest in family health and population issues. Print and audio-visual production facilities exist in-country or can be arranged through local contractors. Traditional media, such as the Institut National des Arts, exist to study and use for communication. The existence of good recording, publishing and distribution networks and the status of Abidjan as the entertainment capital of Francophone West Africa makes the country ideal as a site for a national or sub-regional enter-education project. (See Literature Highlights: Cote D’Ivoire: Childspacing Information, Education and Communication Needs Assessment).
See Literature Highlights for qualitative information concerning AIDS. See Country Profile Sheets for HIV infection rates.
References: State Department Background Notes, Africa: Facts on File, REDSO Preliminary Reports
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