A national seminar was held in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, in August 1988 to disseminate the results of the Survey of Infant Mortality in the Sahel (EMIS). The seminar was organized by the National Institute of Statistics and Demography and funded by the Center for Studies and Research on Population (CERPOD). Various themes were discussed, including the development of surveys on infant and child mortality, maternal-child health policies, contraceptive knowledge and practice and its impact on child survival, and the principal causes of morbidity and mortality among children. The participants adopted a number of resolutions and requested assistance from CERPOD for a more detailed analysis of the survey data, a survey of health and demography covering the entire nation of Burkina Faso, and a regional seminar in Ouagadougou on analysis of the 2nd series of censuses in the Sahel. The EMIS surveys were conducted in 5 urban and 1 rural site in the Sahel. The rural survey was in the region of Thies, Senegal. 4 urban surveys were in Burkina Faso and 1 was in Bamako, Mali. Information was gathered through home visits in the 2 years following the child's birth on infant and early childhood mortality, the mother's use of the health system, and infant feeding practices. Despite numerous errors in data collection, the results show that infant mortality is still very high among children in the Sahel, even in urban areas. There were 13,421 births in the 4 urban areas of the Burkina Faso study. There were 88 deaths per 1000 births in the 1st year and 125 in the 2nd year. In Bamako, Mali, there were 12,114 births, 91 deaths per 1000 births in the 1st year and 122 in the 2nd year. In rural Senegal there were 4987 births, 113 deaths per 1000 births in the 1st year, and 172 in the 2nd year.