Benin
From Wikiprogress.org
| Benin | |
 Flag of Benin | |
| Population (In Millions) | 8.85 |
| Human Development Index | 167/169 |
| Gross Domestic Product (In USD Billions - World Bank) | 6.63 |
| Global Peace Index | - /153 |
| Happy Planet Index | 134/143 |
| Social Institutions and Gender Index | 74/102 |
| Environmental Performance Index | 154/163 |
| Child Mortality Rate | 73.2 |
| More information on variables | |
Geography
Benin is is located in Western Africa, bordering the Bight of Benin, between Nigeria and Togo. It has borders with Burkina Faso for 306km, Niger for 266km, and Nigeria for 773km and Togo for 644k.[1]
Quality of Life
Multidimensional Poverty Index
The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for Benin is 0.412. The MPI is an international measure of acute poverty covering 109 countries. The MPI reflects the multiple deprivations that poor people face at the same time in three dimensions: health, education and living standards. The MPI reflects both the incidence or headcount ratio (H) of poverty – the proportion of the population that is multidimensionally poor – and the average intensity (A) of their poverty – the average proportion of indicators in which poor people are deprived. More information on the MPI in Benin is available here.
UNDP Human Development Report Trends - 2011
According to the United Nations Development Programme, Benin's HDI is 0.427, which gives the country a rank of 167 out of 187 countries with comparable data. The HDI of Sub-Saharan Africa as a region increased from 0.365 in 1980 to 0.463 today, placing Benin below the regional average.[2]. The HDI represents a push for a broader definition of well-being and provides a composite measure of three basic dimensions of human development: health, education and income.
Benin's HDI (0.427) breaks down as follows:
Health: 0.569
Education: 0.365
Income: 0.374
Jobs and Earnings
Multidimensional Poverty Index
Civic Engagement and Governance
Benin was classified as a "free" country, meaning that "there is open political competition, a climate of respect for civil liberties, significant independent civic life, and independent media" in the Freedom House 2011 report. [3]. Transparency International 2011 report ranked Benin as one of the 100th least perceived to be corrupted country with a score of 3 out of 183 countries. The grading started with 10 (very clean) to 0 (highly corrupt).Corruption Perceptions Index 2011.[1]
Official Statistics
Institut national de la statistique et de l'analyse économique. [4]
Development Progress Story: Benin’s progress in education - Expanding access and narrowing the gender gap
Benin’s progress in education has been highlighted as a part the [5]'s Development Progress Stories, an initiative looking at what is working in development and why. Key messages from the research include:
- Having had one of the world’s lowest primary school enrolment rates and enormous gender disparities in 1990, today almost all Beninese boys and girls can access school. A growing number is graduating from primary and enrolling in secondary school.
- Key factors in this have included the political support to prioritise improved access to education, supported by substantial increases in government and donor funding, and highly effective outreach campaigns to increase public perceptions of the value of education.
- Benin may reach universal primary enrolment in the coming decade; however, priorities should increasingly focus on ensuring that all Beninese children can receive a higher quality of basic education. This will require addressing low teaching quality, institutional capacity constraints and growing concerns about ownership and sustainability.
Full report and summary case study can be viewed and downloaded here
Happiness in Benin
This is an overview of findings on Happiness in Benin.The available findings are presented in the latest ‘Nation Report’ on Benin [2]. This report is ordered by type of happiness questions and within these types by year. This ordering is to facilitate the assessment of progress, comparison over time being most fruitful using the same questions.
The report presents means and standard deviations, both on the original scale range and transformed to a common range 0-10. The means inform about the level of happiness in the country and the standard deviations about inequality of happiness.
Links provide more detail about the precise text of the question, the full distribution of responses and technical details of the survey. The report is continuously updated.
