B e n i nC o u n t r y D e v e l o p m e n t p l a n

Teach A Man To Fish

Created By: Dat Ngo Judith Rivas Erick Gonzalez-Gonzalez

Currently in the country of Benin there are many problems going on, however the most insuf-ficient is the environmental status, importantly the water. For example the Oueme River that is polluted with pesticides that the Beninese has, who is unaware, released into the river. And as they release the pesticides into the water, they are in the water, and the fish are being affected. And as they eat the fish, drink bathe, clean, cook, etc. with that water they in-crease they intake of the pesticides. When they consume the pesticides, it causes Cholera, which leads to dehydration, and they will die.

To fix the problem we plan to have workshops to teach the people to construct better fish-ing equipment, and proper fishing techniques. Along with seminars to inform the people of the use of these pesticides and the negative effects they bring to them.

We have decided to take 5 years to complete our project. In the first year, our project will take off. We will focus on the city of Kilibo, and start there, and from there we plan to ex-pand through out the river line. And by the fifth year our project will be traveling across river line, and eventually the people will be teaching each other how to construct the pole, how to use it properly, and the negative effects of the pesticides they are using.

Executive Summary“ Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach A Man To Fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” -Chinese Proverb

Historical NarrativeB e f o r e a n D D u r i n g f r a n C e t a k e o v e r . Benin, originally known as Dahomey, and was

one of the great medieval African kingdoms.

Around the eighteenth century, Europeans

began to arrive, while the kingdom of Dahomey

was expanding territory boundaries. Portugal,

France, and the Netherlands established trad-

ing posts along the coasts in Port-Novo, Ouidah,

and Cotonou. And in the posts, there were

weapons being traded for slaves. The slave

trade ended in 1848, and France singed treaties

with the kings of Abomey, for they wanted to

establish French protectorates in the main cities

and ports. However the King Behanzin, fought

against the French influence, but he was exiled

to Martinique. And as of 1900, Dahomey was

imperialized by France, and was under a direct

rule by a French Governor. While under the rule

of France, the territory was expanding into the

kingdoms of Parakou, Nikki, and Kandi, up to the

boundaries’ of Upper Volta. And on the fourth

of December in 1959 the kingdom of Dahomey,

became the République du Dahomey, which

was a self-governing country under the French

rule. However on the first of August in 1960,

République du Dahomey, became the Repub-

lic of Benin which gained independence from

France. m France.

P o s t I m p e r i a l i s mOfficially on August first in 1960, The Republic of

Benin became independent from France. Benin

was plagued by governmental instability which

was caused by economic issues, ethnic rivals, and

social unrest. In 1963 there was a successful coup,

that put Justin Ahomadegbé into power (whom

was allied with Apithy). And the political unrest

continued in Benin for six years up to when Lt. Col.

Paul Émile de Souza was made to be president in

1969. Elections were attempted in the 70’s, how-

ever they were canceled due to different political

views between the north and south. It was decid-

ed to have a three-men presidential council over

having one president. The council consisted of

Maga, Ahomadegbé, and Apithy. Each member

led the country for two years.

Maga was first lead, who was replaced by Ahomadegbé, in

May 1972. However in October of the same year, the militaryin-

tervened, by toppling Ahomadegbé and increasing the three-

men council to an eleven-men council. One leader, Kérékou

declared that Benin is a Marxist-Lenist country, and attempted

to find finacial support form other Communist countries. And

continuous stikes and coups resulted in a formation of a militia,

in 1989. The militia along with social unrest and economic issues

forced the country to renounce Marxism as a ideology.

A national conference had took place in 1990, and a referen-

dum provided for a new constitution, with multiparty elections.

In 1991 Kérékou was beaten in the polls by Nicéphor Soglo. This

started a back and fourth election between the two. Soglo was

credited for the revision for the economy, however criticized

being distance from the people. This brought Kérékou back as

president in 1996. In the 1999 assembly elections, however the

opposition, led by Soglo’s wife, Rosine, won the majority of seats.

Conflict with Niger over the ownership of one of several disputed

islands in the Niger River led to tensions in 2000; the islands were

divided between the two nations in 2005 after international

arbitration.

Later in 2005 the reelected Kérékou, anounced his term would

end in 2006, and would not amens the constitution to stay in

power. In March, 2006, Thomas Yayi Boni, an economist who

had previously headed the West African Development Bank,

was elected president after a runoff, winning nearly 75% of the

vote. In June, 2006, the national assembly voted to amend the

constitution to extend assembly members’ terms to five years,

but the supreme court rejected the amendment as for violating

the 1990 consensus that established the constitution. President

Yayi survived an apparent assassination attempt in March, 2007.

Yayi’s coalition won a wide variety of the seats in the national

assembly in the elections later that month.

Benin Timeline

1958 - Dahomey becomes self-governing inside the French community

1946 - Dahomey becomes an overseas territory of France.

1894- Dahomey (Benin) is colonized by France

1960 Dahomey becomes indenpendent and is admitted to the UN

1752- The Portuguese moved to benin and founded Porto-Novo, for slave trading.

1848- Slave Trade in Benin Ended(Traders traded Weapons for Beninese slaves)

1900- Benin Imperialised by France, under a direct rule

1959- Kingdom of Dahomey became the République du Dahomey, which was self-governing country within the French

1963- Dahomey Joins the IMF (international Monetary Fund)

1963- There was a successful coup in Dahomey and Justin Ahomadegbé went into power.

1975 - Dahomey is renamed the Republic of Benin.

1967 - Benin separates from Nigeria

1970- Dahomey has a three-man presidental council, led by Ahomadegbe, Apithy and Maga with each leading Dahomey for two years each.

1972- The military gets involved and Major Kerekou seizes power by detaining the three-man presidental council members

1973- The CNR (Conseil National Revolutionnaire) is cre-ated. There are representatives from across Dahomey.

1977 - The CNR adopts a “Loi Fondamentale”, giving Be-nin some new government structures

1990 March - Implementation of agreed reforms begins. Benin drops “people’s” from its official title and becomes the Republic of Benin.

2007 - President Yayi leads thousands of supporters on a march against corruption.

2006 - The African Development Bank and the World Bank approve debt relief to Benin

2005 - International Court of Justice awards Niger most of the river islands along the Benin-Niger border.

2004 - Benin and Nigeria agree to redraw their shared border.

Eradicating Poverty and HungerPoluation recieving under a $1 a day. 50% (2007) Off track

Children recieving malnutrition 22% (2006)

Primary Education Completion of boys and girls 64% (2006) Possibile

Expenditure per student 13% (2006)

Gender Equility Women in nonagricultural sector 24% (2006) Possible

Ratio of boys and girls in school 73% (2005)

Reducing Child MortalityUnder five (per 1000) 123 (2007) Off track

Immunization for measels 61% (2007)

Improving Maternal HealthMaternal Mortality Rate 840 (2005) Off track

Adolescent Birth Rate 120 (2007)

Combating DiseasePrevalence of HIV 1.2% (2007) Possible

Tuberulocsis 91% (2007

Environmental Sustainability Access to improve water source 65% (2006) Insufficient

CO2 emissions 0.3% (2005)

According to the the table below, Benin as many possible project ideas. However the best choice is the Environmental Sustainability, importantly the water source. Currently 65% of the population has access to fresh water, only because the water is polluted. The information of the sustainability is insuf-ficient and there are no changes being made by the government. Along with the evrinmental sustainabil-ity, the nest possible project is the combating against diseses. Importantly tuberculosis, because 91% of the population is diagnosed, while only 1.3% is effected with HIV. Comparing these two issues, the Evironem-tal Sustainability is the best project to follow through with.

Millenium Development GoalsWomen’s Issues: The constitution of Benin states there should be no discrimination based on sex, race, and religion. It is not fully enforced, and public aware-ness on these topics is low. There is a Code of Persons and Families that sets the legal age at 18 for marriage for men and women, despite this forced and early marriages remain throughout Benin. Discrimination against wom-en still continues, and women have a few rights within their familiy structures. For example, women can’t own their own property, and have to depend on their husbands for financial matters. Physical integrity, or the protection of rights and freedom, of women and enforcements against it is weak so it is most likely a women could become a victim to domestic violence or rape.

H u m a n R i g h t s

Children’s Issues: In Benin, and other countries of West Africa, there is a huge problem with child trafficking. Children are being trafficked from Benin to other coun-tries for either child labor or sexual exploitation. There is even a tradition for the use of young female slaves still being practiced as of today. Even in schools, there are children being sexually exploited by teachers to receive better grades, commonly in public schools. There are laws from the government’s Brigade for the Protection of Minors that makes it illegal to prostitute a minor, or child labor, but the Brigade isn’t very powerful to make the law into power.

Worker’s Rights: There is a new labor code that will recognize domestic workers in Benin. It gives workers responsibilities, safety, health, and rights to domes-tic workers. There is a Domestic Workers’ Union that has approximately 500 members that contains more male than female members. The male mem-bers have the same tasks that the female memberrs have.The experiences of union workers before the new labour include: lack of job contracts, unregular working hours, no payment for overtime, violence, no recognition of multi-skills, sexual harassmnt, and racism.

Environmental issues in Benin are droughts and many residents are not able to receive fresh water. Many forests in Benin are gone because of defores-tation. So all the forests that are gone the land is used as fuel. But water is the main problem because the ground water was found and it gets contami-nated from all the disposed waste of land. Also the airborne sources and infiltration are polluted because the surface water. Deforestation had oc-curred since a long time ago because many trees are gone and forests are all clear with no vegetation because of the fuel. Also many animals are becom-ing extinct because they’re not able to drink clean water. Benin has a lot of deserts that are dry and have little water supply. For many people in Benin its hard to find water because of the the dry deserts. Benin temperature is hot and humid. Mostly everything is gone in Benin just because the water is not really helping with the vegetation. This case is really affecting Benin because they are not able to get anything. People in Benin like to catch fish but now is bad because the fishes drink the water that is contaminated and people eat them and they could get really sick because of the fishes.

Evironmental StatusResource Map

DESCRIPTION O F N E E D In the country of Benin there is a river of Oueme that

is polluted with pesticides beca use the people are

using them to catch and kill fish. The people are wash-

ing empty water bottles that are with contaminated

with pesticides, and they either use the bottle to drink

or they wash them. Then the pesticides are released

in the water and the fish are infected by the them.

The people at that point are unaware of the pesti-

cides are in the water and the fish, and they eat the

fish. They also drink, bath, wash clothes, cook, etc.

with that same water which is filled with pesticides,

causing Cholera. Cholera causes vomiting and diar-

rhea, which leads to dehydration and death. The

country is in need of better fishing habits and they

need to be educated about the use and the impact

of percticides.

Project ProposalOur proposal is to change the fishing hab-its of Benin in order to create a fresh water source. Our focus is on the city of Kilibo, which is next to the Oueme river. The river is polluted with pesticides from the empty watter bottles the Beninese use to kill and eat fish. When they release the pesticides into the water it gets into the fish as they eat, and in the water they drink, which doubles the pesticides intake, causing Cholera.

Our plan is to have workshops, where we will teach the people to make a basic fishing rod, so the people can fish prop-erly. We will teach how to constuct the pole, and proper fishing techniques with-out pesticides. Along with the workshops we will have seminars about the negative effects of the pesticides. The use of pes-ticides cause Cholera, which effects the popluation because it causes diarrhea and the people to throw up, and they be-come dehydrated and can die. however Cholera is easily treated with a vaccine, thus our main focus us to eliminate the pesticides and have cleaner water.

The use of pesticides will be eliminated and the water will be fresh. The proper fishing materials will reduce the use of the pesticides, and will decrease the intake. The seminars will alert the people to the dangers of the pesticides.

Fishing MaterialsThe materials we plan to use for the fishing rods are: 1. A basic stick, where one either can make one out of wood, or find a decent size wooden stick. 2. A rope that is strong and thin enough to stay on the stick. 3. A inexpensive hook where we can put the bait. These materials are very easy to find, and it would be easy to contruct the fishing rod.

Impact Analysis

There are many pros and cons to our project, however we believe that our project will be successful. Constructing the thising poles with bey inexpensive materials will be easy, However finding the bait may be difficult. And teaching the people how to fish is the simpliest task to do, beacuse all the people have to do is place their bait in the water, and wait for fish, and then pull. However there is a chance that the people will not grasp the technique quickly, or not even at all. And the seminars will be undemanding, because were gonna have a small class to inform the people of the negative effects of the pesticides. All of these events will happen at the same time. However the construction of the poles may be difficault because there is a chance that we cannot provide enough materials right away. Then we will have to pause the project and collect more materials, and then the project will go on longer than planned. However these are just accusations of waht are the possible outsomes of our project. We devoted to make sure that our project will run one hun-dred percent perfectly.

Project Implementation

Our goal is to clean out the Oume River so there is fresh water all over Benin. The organization is going to change the water source in a couple of years because the water has pesticides. Our goal also is to clean the water for the people through proper fishing techniques. Its really hard for them to find water and this will really help them by learning how to fish properly.

Short Term: Our short term goal is to have our seminars started, in order to inform the people about the negative effects of the pesticide use. Along how to make fishing poles. We will first start in Kilibo, which is a town located adjacent to the Oueme river and it is located around southern Benin. Because they are close to river, they are effected the most. We plan to have our headquarters placed in Kilibo, and we will start everything. For the seminars we will not be using any building of any sort, because that will take up to much time. At the same time, we will show the people how to construct the fishing pole. And when the seminars are complete and the people are spreading the information about the pesticides. Then we will enable our ability to teach the proper fishing techniques.

Long Term: As soon as the seminars are done, we can continue on with the fishing poles. The seminars should take 3 years to finish. Then we will continue with the fishing poles, the constriction and fishing poles, all to-gether, should take 7 years to spread throughout the river line. it will take this long because when we finish with Kilibo, we will move on to another city. And we plan to have the people of Kilibo teach others, and for them to mirgrate in order for them to teach other people.

10 Year Plan

Year 1: Start with the seminars, and collect materials for poles. Year 2-3: Continue seminars, finish by year 3, and start to construct fishing poles. Year 4: Focus on contructing poles, and teach proper techinques. Year 5: Finish in Kiliba and mirgate to other cities and towns, Year 6: As the people of Kilibo grasp the contruction and technique, they will migrate to other people and cities to teach them about pesticides, contrsucting the poles, and how to properly use them. Year 7: Continue with current city or town, and have people who have grasp the idea, have those people migrate and do the same. Year 8: Have at least half of the river line cities and towns educated with the pesticides and fish-ing pole contruction and use. Year 9: Continue with project and have addintional cities and towns to spread our ideas. Year 10: Finish up project, and have the people continue to spread our ideas.