Benin
Benin is a small country in West Africa where more than two-thirds of the estimated population of 12.5 million live in the southern provinces of the country, near major port cities.
Benin’s population growth is among the highest in the world, according to the World Bank. The modern contraceptive prevalence rate for all women ages 15 to 49 is 12%. The maternal mortality ratio is 397 deaths per 100,000 live births. Of women ages 15 to 49, 30.5% have experienced physical or sexual violence.
Our Work in Benin
EngenderHealth’s work in Benin has been marked by strengthening the capacity of youth organizations for effective advocacy on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), including collaboration with 20 feminist organizations and young activists. It also works to accelerate reductions in maternal, newborn, and child mortality and morbidity by increasing the capacity of host-country institutions and local organizations to introduce, deliver, scale up, and sustain the use of evidence-based, quality maternal, newborn, child health services, voluntary family planning (FP), and reproductive health care.
EngenderHealth provides support to local organizations to conduct values-clarification sessions on safe abortion care in accordance with national legislation and the Maputo Protocol ratified by Benin. In the fight against gender-based violence (GBV), EngenderHealth supported the medical, psychosocial, and legal care of 25 girls and women in partnership with the local organization Family Nutrition and Development.
Accelerating Progress Toward Making Safe Abortion Care Accessible in Benin works with local organizations in Benin to strengthen the knowledge and decision-making power of girls and women related to their SRHR, particularly safe abortion care. In addition, the program responds to the critical need for safe abortion services in Benin by raising community awareness and acceptance of safe abortion care and supporting the development of training and communication tools to implement the law effectively.
Support to GBV and Gender Equality Initiatives in Benin aims to prevent GBV and promote gender equality in Benin through partnerships and initiatives at the national level. Through this program, EngenderHealth is supporting the efforts of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Microfinance in the fight against GBV and to promote gender equality in Benin. Our work focuses on national-level strategies to prevent GBV. We are partnering with organizations in Benin to expand and strengthen the vital work that they are already doing.
Ensemble is a large-scale collaborative initiative that works with partners at every level to eliminate GBV in West and Central Africa. This initiative is focused on preventing and responding to GBV in West and Central Africa—our program currently works with partners in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Mali. Ensemble means “together” in French, and we designed this program with the understanding that by working together, our impact will be greater than the sum of our individual efforts. To that end, we are collaborating with governments, civil society organizations, and other national and regional stakeholders in West and Central Africa to support local actions to prevent, respond to, and ultimately eliminate GBV. Critically, Ensemble places women in the lead and is co-designed with feminist- and youth-led organizations and those run by and representing GBV survivors.
Strengthening Local Youth- and Women-Led Organizations to Become Key Actors in Promoting SRHR and Improving the Management and Prevention of GBV in West Africa works with local youth- and women-led organizations to strengthen the SRHR knowledge and decision-making power of young people, girls, and women and support improved coordination of GBV prevention and better delivery of survivor-centered GBV services. EngenderHealth is supporting an established network of youth- and women- organizations across multiple countries in West Africa, including Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, and Burkina Faso, to advocate for expanded access to a full range of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services and addressing the root causes of GBV. The program aims to ensure that women, girls, and young people in West Africa can exercise their SRHR and create a world where they can live free from GBV.
Female genital fistula remains a serious and under-resourced problem in Benin. Lack of awareness of danger signs during pregnancy, of the causes of and opportunities to prevent fistula, and stigmatization of women with fistula all contribute to fistula incidence and to delays in seeking and reaching fistula care. Even when women do seek and get care, they face obstacles to the receipt of timely, high-quality care like insufficient infrastructure, lack of appropriate surgical equipment, and insufficient numbers of skilled healthcare workers. MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics is working in Benin to strengthen access to high-quality, holistic fistula care by raising awareness of fistula at the community level; strengthening health system capacity to prevent, screen for, and repair fistula; strengthening fistula data collection and use for decision making; and supporting socio-economic reintegration of women who have undergone fistula repair.
Partnering to Advance SRHR and Eliminate GBV in West and Central Africa built on the work of our previous program to advance Advocacy on Comprehensive Abortion Care in West Africa, which sought to improve comprehensive abortion care (CAC) in Benin, Burkina Faso, and Côte d’Ivoire. Building on these countries’ commitments to the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol), our work aimed to build regional support for safe abortion among key stakeholders and to facilitate access to CAC by expanding information about their rights and access to services.
Our Partners in Benin
- Beninese Scouting
- Ministry of Social Affairs and Microfinance (Ministère de la Microfinance et des Affaires Sociales)
- NGO Family Nutrition and Development
- West African Network of Young Women Leaders (Roajelf Benin)
- Young Volunteers for Health (JVS Benin)
- Observatory of the Family, the Woman and the Child of Benin (Observatoire de la Famille, de la Femme et de l’Enfant)
- Union of Media Professionals of Benin (Union des Professionels des Media du Bénin)
- Benin Feminists Network (Réseau des Féministes du Bénin)
- ONG Ya Tchégbo
- Ministry of Health (Ministère de la Santé)
- National Order of Pharmacists of Benin (Ordre National des Pharmaciens du Bénin)
- National College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Benin (Collège national des gynécologues obstétriciens du Bénin)
- Beninese Association for Family Welfare, Member of IPPF (Association Béninoise de Bien-être Familial)
- Medical Students For Choice (MSFC)