Benin further gets US$40m for poverty reduction

By Benin Correspondent

The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors has approved an International Development Association (IDA) credit of US$40 million to support Benin's poverty reduction strategy.
The fourth Poverty Reduction Support Credit (PRSC4) is the first in a series of programs that will support the Republic of Benin's new Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction (SCRP) adopted by Government in February 2007.

Since 2003, the Bank has provided direct budget support to the Republic of Benin through a series of three Poverty Reduction Support Credits (PRSC1-3) that helped the country to maintain macroeconomic stability.

Like its predecessors, PRSC4 will complement the resources of the Republic of Benin and other Development Partners to fund priority programs covering three key areas of the Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction: Improving the policy environment for private investments,Improving access to basic services and ensuring greater efficiency of public expenditures on human capital formation, Promoting better governance through financial management, civil service and justice reforms.

According to William Experton, the World Bank Task Team Leader of the PRSC4: The one shift of emphasis most strongly articulated by the Beninese Government in its Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction, is the development of a favorable business environment.

This central element requires an increase in competitiveness of the economy, which means improvement in the business climate and private sector development.

The first PRSC for Benin, totaling to US$20 million contributed to the country's macroeconomic stability through the strengthening of public expenditure management and private sector development.

It also provided crucial expenditure for basic human development programs in education, health, water and sanitation. The second PRSC (US$30 millions) mainly supported agriculture, rural transport, and the justice sector.

The third PRSC (US$30 million) focused on economic growth, good governance, improved public expenditure management, and financial decentralization. With the newly approved PRSC4, the Government of Benin has received a cumulative total of US$120 million (around FCFA 60 billions) in direct budget support from the Bank since 2003.

Madagascar reinforces laws on Child Protection

By Henry Neondo
The Madagascar's Parliament has approved two new laws aimed at ensuring increased child protection for vulnerable children throughout the country and changing the legal age of marriage from 14 years for girls and 17 years for boys, to 18 years for both genders.

Even in exceptional cases, where parents have agreed to the marriage of their children between 14 or 17 and 18 years of age, a Judge's approval will still be needed to allow the union to take place, challenging the process of early marriage to the highest degree.

These new laws are crucial steps in putting Madagascar's child protection legislation in line with international standards, namely the United Nations Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and its optional protocols, and the African Charter for the Wellbeing of Children, ratified by the Government of Madagascar in March 1989, March 1991 and August 1991 respectively.

UNICEF Country Representative Mr. Bruno Maes expressed satisfaction with the new changes and congratulated the Government of Madagascar for their continued engagement in the issue of child protection.

"These newly passed laws are excellent and landmark achievements for the rights of children in Madagascar and for preventing child trafficking - they will mean that from now on children are legally protected from the negative consequences of early marriage, as well as the severe impacts of being separated from their biological parents. It will be important to publicise the new legislation widely throughout the country".

Official UNICEF statistics show the extent of challenges to child protection in Madagascar. In terms of separation, in 2004, 13% of children under 14 years of age were living without their biological parents.

Regarding child abuse within the family, 10% of under-5 deaths in 2005 in Antananarivo were found to be due to neglect and/or violence.

In relation to child marriage, between 1987 and 2005, 39% of Malagasy children were married before the age of 18, 29% in urban areas and 42% in rural zones. This has a particularly harsh impact on girls, who can suffer from commercial sexual exploitation and violence.

Sometimes, parents are bribed with money to agree to their daughter's union without the child's consent "with the groom", a broker, then forcing the girl into the sex trade.

Furthermore, because married girls are usually unable to refuse sex or insist on condom use, child brides are often exposed to such serious health risks as premature pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, and increasingly, HIV/AIDS.

Both boys and girls who marry early often suffer forced separation and isolation from family and friends, decreased opportunities for education, and are sometimes even subject to bonded labour or enslavement.

UNICEF said the next step is to ensure that this new legislation is put into practice, and that families and communities are educated on the importance of postponing the marriages of their sons or daughters, and the protection of separated children, thereby improving the environment for children at the family level.