Social Protection In Benin

The National Development Plan 2018-2025, the low level of human capital development in Benin highlights several challenges to be met including social protection

INSTRUMENTS

Social Protection has legal instruments (conventions, texts and agreements that define the rights of the persons covered, financing instruments which are social contributions (employees and employers), State subsidies, donations from development partners, interest received by Social Protection structures thanks to the investments they make Protection instruments include benefits in kind (social housing, etc.) and cash benefits (pensions, etc.).

DIVERSIFIED DIRECT INTERVENTIONS

Social Protection also includes direct social interventions by the State, those of local public administrations (integration, dependency, housing, etc.) and those of non-profit institutions serving households.
These different types of instruments are largely operationalized through specific programs or projects in specific areas such as:

  • Education (Reform within the Beninese education system, reallocation of expenditure in favor of primary and secondary education and free basic education, support for Parents’ Associations (APE), the recruitment of teachers are priority measures for the implementation of reforms in the field.
  • health (despite the State’s efforts to make social services accessible in Benin, health insurance and social security coverage remain worrying and insufficient. Old age coverage, for example, only covers State officials and workers in the formal sector. The majority of the Beninese population is not covered by Social Protection measures. This gives rise to social exclusion and the marginalization of vulnerable groups exposed to social risks.);
  • social assistance, work, social security and employment, social mutuality

These are the most prominent areas of social protection in Benin. Protection is particularly interested in the most vulnerable groups (women, children, the elderly, the disabled, people living with HIV / AIDS) to get them out of their precariousness and make them economic agents.

PARTNERS ALONGSIDE THE BENINOIS GOVERNMENT

In terms of social protection, the commitment of Unicef, for example, alongside the government is total. For Unicef, social protection is a key focus of the Medium-term Strategic Plan 2018-2021 to promote equity and social justice and the realization of children’s rights.

BENIN’S HOLISTIC SOCIAL PROTECTION POLICY (PHPS), IN BRIEF

SOME CHALLENGES TO TAKE UP

In view of the contextual analysis of the current social protection system in Benin, the challenges to be taken up for a better efficiency of this system relate to:

  • the improvement of the poorest households’ standard of living ;
  • l has reduced malnutrition ;
  • the improvement of access to basic social services for the most vulnerable ;
  • the e strengthening of social action services to vulnerable groups ;
  • l was consolidating social security schemes ;
  • the extension of social security to the most vulnerable groups, in particular the actors of the informal sector and the rural world ;
  • strengthening of the legislative and regulatory framework, institutional capacities and financing of social protection.

IN RESPONSE TO THE CHALLENGES, THE PHPS

The Holistic Social Protection Policy (PHPS) is generally oriented towards reducing the vulnerability of populations to economic and social risks.

The priorities of this policy are summarized as follows: (i) promotion of social transfers; (ii) strengthening of social action services; (iii) consolidation of the legislative and regulatory framework, (iv) strengthening of contributory schemes ; and (v) extension of social insurance.

In an operational manner to ensure coverage of the most vulnerable population, a national social protection floor has been drawn up. It constitutes “a set of nationally defined basic social security guarantees which provide protection aimed at preventing or reducing poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion”. This is a minimum package of measures to ensure the protection and promotion of the most vulnerable households and people.

THE NATIONAL SOCIAL PROTECTION BASE

It is based on the essential measures aimed at:

  • ensure universal access to health care;
  • facilitate access to nutrition, education, protection and health care for all children;
  • improve the consumption of the poorest and most vulnerable households; and
  • ensure the care and promotion of specific groups in situations of extreme vulnerability.

These actions come from four priority axes:

  • promotion of direct social transfers;
  • strengthening of free access measures;
  • strengthening social work for families and individuals at high risk;
  • consolidation of the Universal Health Insurance Scheme.

       Source: PHPS, 2013