The Context

Located in West Africa, Benin has a long frontier with its eastern neighbour Nigeria, and is bordered by Togo to the west and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north.

Many of Benin’s estimated 10 million people live in the port city of Cotonou, on the Gulf of Guinea.

Benin’s population is 12.12 million people in 2020, and is projected to surpass 30 million people in 2030 and reach 46.83 million people by 2099, more than tripling its current population. Benin’s population is currently growing at a rate of 2.73 per cent a year and 52.14 per cent is rural. Benin has a youthful age structure almost 65 per cent of the population is under the age of 25. The pace of population growth is a big challenge: Benin is one of the poorest countries in the world, and its 2020 Human Development Index of 0.520 ranks it 163th of 189 countries.

International support, and economic and structural reforms have helped Benin achieve growth in Gross Domestic Product of 4 to 5 per cent a year over the past two decades, despite a recent downward trend, the poverty rate remains high, at 56.4 per cent, with a poverty line of US$1.90 a day in purchasing power parity. Poverty is lower among female-headed households yet women are more vulnerable and lack economic opportunities.

Agriculture generates around 70 per cent of employment and 30 per cent of GDP, but is dependent on rainfall and vulnerable to climate change. An estimated 550,000 smallholdings averaging 1.7 hectares dominate subsistence farming of cereals and tubers.

A chronic lack of jobs in rural areas spurs youths to migrate to urban areas. Market gardening is a major direct and indirect source of jobs for young people and women in towns, their environs and rural areas, and has scope for development to meet a shortage of vegetables throughout the sub-region.

The Strategy

In Benin, IFAD loans support the Government in reducing poverty and improving the livelihoods of poor rural people.

Activities target the most disadvantaged households in rural areas. Our approach is based on the use of local service providers to support communities.

Key activities include:

• improving access by small- and medium-sized rural operations to adapted financial services;
• improving income for smallholder farmers and vegetable growers and enhancing  resilience to climate change through their integration into sustainable value chains for production, distribution and sale of flowers, rice, soya, pineapple, cassava, and maize;
• helping farmer organizations and local associations take part in steering and managing economic development within their communes.