Poverty in Benin

Youngsters from Benin © Dan Gerber

Benin has a very underdeveloped economy with almost three-quarters of the population coping on less than $2 per day. The proportion beneath the national poverty line, the benchmark adopted for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), has risen from 26.5% in the baseline year of 1990 to 37.4% in 2006, leaving little hope of achieving the target of 15% in 2015. The country faces serious health problems particularly with malaria, poor nutrition, maternal and child health, and tuberculosis. Life expectancy is estimated at just over 55 years.

An IMF 2007 progress report for Benin’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility indicated that prospects for achieving most of the MDGs in Benin are “unlikely”, the exceptions being education and provision of safe drinking water.

Heading home from school in Benin © Dan Gerber

Primary school enrollment has increased from 45% in 1990/1992 to 83% in 2004/05 although adult literacy remains below 50%. While the population with access to improved sanitation (toilets and latrines) is only 33%, this figure has trebled in just 10 years. And with 67% of the population having access to improved water sources, the target of 78% by 2015 is in sight. Although not relevant to the MDGs, Benin has been applauded for almost eliminating the incidence of river blindness.

Increased development assistance and better governance through reduced corruption and transfer of resources from the center to the newly created decentralized government structures are needed to empower people and achieve the MDGs.

Food Security in Benin

Young child from Benin © Dan Gerber

With such a significant proportion of the population beneath the poverty line, the impact of rising food prices has potentially serious implications for nutrition and health. Almost a quarter of children under 5 years are already underweight. According to the World Bank, in the first half of 2008 the Benin government spent nearly 10% of the national budget on subsidies and other measures to hold down food prices, a strategy which the Bank describes as “unsustainable”. Despite record harvests in 2007, the country is dependent on food imports.

Agriculture accounts for a third of GNP and employs over half of the population including many small subsistence farmers struggling to afford higher input prices. The government has launched the Emergency Food Security Programme which aims to boost domestic production in 2008 by subsidising the price of fertilizer and improving the infrastructure for seed distribution.
Climate Change in Benin

Benin's own Venice © Dan Gerber

The fragile productivity of agriculture will be sensitive to the changing rainfall patterns predicted to result from global warming. In the south of Benin, the coastline has retreated by 400 metres in the last 40 years, resulting in loss of land and buildings. The economic capital, Cotonou, is particularly prone to flooding due to being located barely above sea level. In 2007 the government banned the commercial extraction of sand and is embarking on a $73 million project to build dykes along the coast. About half of Benin’s population lives in coastal regions and the country may become one of the benchmarks for the impact of global warming.

On the other side of the climate change coin, deforestation and soil degradation are problems throughout Benin, being of especial concern in the more arid north. Harvesting of old growth trees for lumber and the cutting of over 5 million tons of timber (247,000 acres) for fuel are significant issues. As elsewhere, poverty is a major contributor to environmental deterioration as well as lack of local community ownership to manage resources.
Politics in Benin

Historically, Benin has exerted regional and at times worldwide influence as the center of the Abomey kingdom of the 17th Century, the birthplace of voodoo, and as a major player in the West African slave trade. During French colonization, Dahomey (Benin's name until 1973) was the "Latin Quarter" of Francophone Africa providing a high proportion of the region's intelligentsia.

Now, Benin is at the forefront of African democratization. In 1990, facing economic paralysis, Benin held a National Conference that brought an end to the Marxist Leninist government led by Mathieu Kérékou and established a new liberal democracy. The National Conference brought together leaders from civil society, business and government, and the change of government occurred in an orderly fashion without bloodshed. A new constitution emerged that abolished Marxist ideology as the state philosophy, reestablished a multi-party system, dissolved all one-party structures, released all political detainees and prisoners and scheduled a national multiparty election in March 1991.

Soglo campaign; Benin 1996 © Dan Gerber

In that election, Kérékou ran against a former World Bank Official, Nicephore Soglo, and was soundly defeated. Kérékou's willingness to accept the democratic decision turned out positively for him as he then defeated Soglo in the 1996 and 2001 elections. Soglo has since become Mayor of Cotonou. Kérékou flirted with the idea of changing the constitution to run for a third consecutive term but this provoked outrage of civil society groups and, in July 2005, Kérékou indicated he would respect the constitution and retire from the Presidency. Despite some controversies in organizing and funding the election, the Beninese population participated actively in the March 2006 elections that resulted in former West African Development Bank official and political newcomer Yayi Boni's overwhelming victory (75% of the run-off vote) over political veteran Adrien Houngbedji. Having promised to revive Benin's faltering economy and clamp down on corruption, the new president’s position was strengthened when his party was successful in parliamentary elections held in April 2007.

Woman leader at meeting, Benin © Dan Gerber

The most positive political accomplishments of the past 17 years include: a liberalized economic system, enhanced human rights and political freedom, a slowly embarked decentralization program that resulted in the first local elections in 2002, and peaceful national elections. However, widespread corruption, centralized and non-accountable decision-making, regionalism, and a poor and ill-educated populace are evidence of the incomplete democratic transformation for Benin. Violent crime, as evidenced by numerous car-jackings and incidences of armed robberies, is also on the increase. Part of the rise is attributed to the porous border with Nigeria and part to the increased economic problems stemming from fuel price hikes and unemployment.
Corruption in Benin

Corruption is a significant problem in Benin, impacting people's lives in numerous ways and existing at many levels. For example, in the privatization of the state-owned oil company SONACOP, it is commonly accepted that the sale to a Kérékou associate was non-transparent and at a significant discount. In 2005, the US Securities and Exchange Commission fined Titan Corporation over $28 million in criminal penalties and for settlement of a civil law suit stemming from more than $2 million in bribes it gave to the Kérékou re-election campaign in 2001. This was the single biggest penalty under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In Benin, however, to date there have been no arrests and, immediately after Kérékou's election, his government authorized the quadrupling of Titan's fees for establishment of its Libercom cellular phone project.

Transport in Benin © Dan Gerber

Corruption is also rife in everyday life. Citizens encounter corruption in the judiciary (the government announced in 2004 its plans to try most of the country's judges for bribe-taking and embezzlement), in education where grades and degrees can be purchased, in health care where bribes to health workers are needed to obtain treatment, in commerce (where petty bribes to policemen at road stops is common), in government and private sector contracts and in employment opportunities. Cumulatively, corruption is a major impediment to development.
Human Rights and Media in Benin

Anti-trafficking poster, Benin © Advocacy Project

Political and minority rights are well respected in Benin and in recent years the country has rarely been accused of any significant violations. The major human rights issues noted for Benin have involved female genital mutilation (FGM) with approximately 50% of women impacted, and child trafficking. One survey indicated that 8% of rural children aged 6-16 worked as agricultural workers or domestic servants either in Benin or neighboring countries. The discovery of Beninese children working in appalling conditions in Nigerian mines led to a signed agreement between the two countries to act more decisively against child traffickers.

The trafficking of children stems from a combination of poverty and culture as do the related issues of child prostitution, infanticide and a child abusive servitude tradition called "vidomegon". On a positive note, FGM was outlawed in 2003 and the government finally adopted a new Family Code in 2004 after several years of lobbying by women's organizations and others.

The 1990s brought to Benin a free press willing to criticize government and personalities. There are numerous free newspapers and a growing community radio network. The state's monopoly on television was also recently challenged with the opening of two independent commercial TV stations. Internet access is still limited, primarily to urban areas, but is growing.
HIV/AIDS in Benin

In Benin, the HIV prevalence rate is down to 1.2% with an estimated 69,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in 2007. While this is not as significant a problem as in some African countries, it has the potential to increase dramatically due to widespread poverty, poor health of many groups, cultural practices and the ever-increasing flows of traffic across the Nigerian border.

The government and international donor community have done much to educate Beninese on the risks of HIV transmission. However, the Roman Catholic Church has actively campaigned against promoting use of condoms and there are many unfounded rumours regarding negative aspects of condom use.
The Economy in Benin

Selling cloth in Benin © Dan Gerber

The main export crops are cotton, palm oil products, coffee and cocoa beans. Cotton, in particular, is important but its competitiveness on the world market is severely hindered by US and European unfair trade cotton subsidies and policies. There is a small oil refining industry and also some mineral resources (gold, limestone, marble, precious stones, iron, and phosphates) though these are not fully exploited. Food processing, textiles, beverages and cement are the major industries which account for about 14% of GDP. Services account for 50% of GDP and include much petty trading as well as import/export via road and the Port of Cotonou. A recurring problem for the small industrial sector has been electrical shortages - most recently felt in early 2007 - though measures are being taken to remedy this.

Black market fuel, Benin © Dan Gerber

Benin has followed IMF prescriptions for economic liberalization leading to more open markets and a privatization policy that was implemented in 2001. Despite the dampening effect of corruption, economic growth has averaged 5% pa over the past decade but has had little impact on the poor. Obeying the rules of the game however ensured that Benin reached the completion point under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries initiative, thereby qualifying for the round of debt cancellation agreed by G7 ministers in 2005. The substantial savings in interest payments are understood to be redirected to poverty reduction programmes.



Dan Gerber has been involved in African development programs and issues since entering the Peace Corps in Niger in 1973. He lived in Benin from 1994 to 1997 and has returned frequently. He currently works on African democracy and governance programs within the International Development Group of RTI International.

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