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Canada's Commitment
Results
Country Profile
Canada's Commitment
Canada and Benin have been working together for the past 40 years to develop programs that will ultimately benefit the people of Benin. Benin is one of the 25 developing partner countries in which the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) will concentrate the major part of its bilateral (country to country) assistance.
The Solid Household Waste Management
Project has cleaned up the city of Cotonou,
reduced the number of infectious diseases,
created 800 jobs, and increased the city’s revenue.
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Canada and Benin have developed a programming statement for 2004–2009 whereby bilateral projects in Benin supported by CIDA will chiefly focus on the sector of urban sanitation. Other existing country priorities in the governance sector—including projects relating to the democratization process—continue to be completed and improved to achieve expected results.
CIDA also funds La Francophonie, Pan-African, industrial cooperation, voluntary sector and multilateral programs in Benin. In 2003-2004, Canadian Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Benin totalled $10.76 million.
Results
The focus on these program priorities in past projects has led to notable results. For instance, the people of Benin are increasingly aware of the waste management issues in their country, 800 new jobs have been created, and the working conditions of everyone involved in pre-collection have greatly improved.
Country Profile
 CIDA helps purchase plastic refuse
containers used for the purification
and recovery of organic waste from
the Dantokpa international market.
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Often held up as a model of transition to democracy in western Africa, Benin's government has changed peacefully several times since the 1990s. In 2004 it was rated the second-best African country in terms of freedom of the press by the organization Reporters Without Borders. These facts only begin to illustrate this country's current situation.
Benin is taking an active part in its own development and, to that end, in 2002 adopted a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper for 2003–2005. The paper helps guide Benin's development partners in their poverty reduction objectives and sets out the major goals and development priorities for the Beninese government:
- strengthening the macroeconomic framework in the medium term;
- developing human capital and environmental management;
- building governance and institutional capacities; and
- promoting sustainable employment and building the poor's capacity to participate in the decision-making and production process.
Finally, the Government of Benin's own Government's Action Program states that the Benin of the future would be “a beacon of a country, a well-governed country, united and at peace, with a prosperous and competitive economy, of cultural influence and social well-being.
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