CARITAS BENIN

SAHEL - BÉNIN

Diocesan Caritas and Development of Natitingou in Benin  was created in 1964. Caritas Benin intervenes in several areas such as basic social services (health, education, provision of drinking water); ordinary emergencies (aid for the indigent, assistance for people in very precarious situations); major emergencies; development (child protection, advancement of women, literacy, women’s empowerment, agro-pastoralism, environmental protection).

The Caritas Natitingou program is located in the Atacora-West zone of Benin. This area is characterised by very difficult agro-climatic conditions, notably infertile soils with scant rainfall, a local economy dominated by self-subsistence agriculture and an environment that is not very favourable to the development of entrepreneurship.

The program in the Resilient Communities (CoRe) focuses on the following activities:

• Strengthen the capacities of 20 relay producers on the application of innovative agro ecological practices by Caritas agents
• Organise a promotion of agro-ecological products (exhibitions of agro-ecological products) to make agro-ecological market garden products known and, above all, to have them adopted by many local consumers
• Strengthen the technical capacities of CDD-Natitingou agents on agro-ecological techniques and practices adapted to climate change and innovative (integration of agriculture, livestock and others and manufacture of enriched compost, etc.).

Benin also participates in the transversal activities of the Agro-ecology Program for the Sahel (PAES) at the regional level through networking for the exchange of experiences, training, valorisation of knowledge, communication and advocacy on the agro-ecological transition.