Plan’s work in Benin covers 3 programmes, all of which are rooted in the rights of the child:

• Governance and child rights
• Youth leadership
• Empowered women for child rights

Governance and child rights

Plan works to ensure that councils (newly decentralised communes) have signed up to child protection code and increased their investment in the areas of water and sanitation, basic education, and maternal and infant health- including the reduction of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

Also, Plan thrives to make sure that women’s organisations and their federations have access to relevant information about the functioning of their councils and effectively participate in the council’s public deliberations, putting the interest of girls’ and women on the political agenda of their communes.

Youth leadership

Plan facilitates projects which ensure that clubs organised by girls and boys have strengthened capacity and network to discuss topics that concern their communities and nation. As a result, their opinions will become more visible and they will enjoy increased opportunities to participate in decision-making at the local and national levels.

Plan works as well to make sure orphans and vulnerable children regularly benefit from legal, psychological, educational, and nutritional support as well as essential health-care, contributing to their integration into society, reduction of stigma, and increased access to education or vocational training.

Empowered women for child rights

Through this programme, Plan works to guarantee that people living with HIV benefit from a psychosocial support package facilitated by Plan and this will result in lower mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Benin.

With Plan’s contribution, many children, can drink safe water and have access to better hygiene and sanitation facilities all year round.

Also, many children under the age of 5 with fever symptoms are treated through the community integrated management of childhood illness protocol, which contributes to lower under-5 mortality rates.

Moreover, many girls and women are financially literate and seek asset building opportunities after having participated in functional village savings and loans schemes, which help rural women to access credit at lower rates so that they can invest in their own businesses and meet the needs of their families.