Benin
We collaborate with local and national partners to help everyone in Benin, especially young people, access high-quality voluntary family planning and reproductive health information, counseling, products, and services.
MOMENTUM is partnering with nearly 40 countries to accelerate progress and advance USAID’s work to save lives and improve health outcomes for women, children, families, and communities in all of their diversity. MOMENTUM brings together specialized technical and country expertise through six distinct yet integrated awards with the depth and breadth of experience to spur reductions in maternal, newborn, and child mortality and morbidity.
In Benin, MOMENTUM Private Healthcare Delivery strengthens the private sector’s capacity to deliver person-centered health services so more people, especially youth, can access high-quality family planning products and services.
Expanding Access to Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care through the Private Sector
More than one third of Beninese women who use modern contraception obtain it through the private sector.1 MOMENTUM Private Healthcare Delivery partners with private health facilities and other private health service providers throughout the country to expand access to high-quality family planning information, counseling, products, and services. We help train private health care providers to improve the quality of care they provide to their clients. We also support providers to collect and use health data so that reproductive health services are more accessible and available in their communities. We support a closely connected network of private health workers and clinic owners, helping hone their business skills so that high-quality family planning services are accessible in the long term.
MOMENTUM also collaborates with local associations and local stakeholders in the public health sector, including the Beninese Ministry of Health, to help the programs with which we work become more sustainable. In addition, we help organize mobile health clinics to bring family planning services to people in rural areas who have limited access to health care.
Partnering With Youth Organizations to Create Innovative Health Programs
Forty-two percent of Benin’s population is under age 15,2 making engagement with local youth critical to creating innovative health programs that respond to their needs now and in the future. MOMENTUM collaborates with local associations to support demand-generation activities and supports these associations to build their organizational and technical capacity. MOMENTUM staff also work alongside Beninese youth to jointly design and lead activities so that programs are tailored to meet their unique needs and preferences for family planning and reproductive health services.
Read how we worked with the Association Mairie des Jeunes to spread the word about sexual and reproductive health among Benin’s youth.
Using Digital Tools to Reach Youth with Family Planning and Reproductive Health Services
As Benin’s young population continues to grow, the country’s health policies have recognized the importance of youth-friendly health services.3 To support Benin’s commitment to its young people, MOMENTUM works with the Centres Jeunes Amour & Vie (Love and Life Youth Centers) to reach youth with family planning information and services using digital tools. One of these digital tools is a chatbot, Tata Annie, which brings contraceptive information and counseling on-demand to adolescents and young people through their phones. MOMENTUM is exploring the scale and sustainability of this tool as a way to continue improving youth access to reliable family planning and reproductive health information.
Read more about how we’re meeting the contraceptive needs of Benin’s youth with digital tools.
Financially Empowering Survivors of Gender-based Violence
Gender-based violence (GBV) is a major public health concern in Benin, where 70 percent of women experience a form of physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.4 GBV has profound consequences for survivors, their families, and communities, including social stigma, loss of financial resources, exclusion from educational opportunities, and difficulty accessing support services. MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience partners with government ministries and other stakeholders to increase the economic independence of GBV survivors and their status in relationships, families, and communities through life skills and individualized employment-related training and coaching. MOMENTUM also supports community structures, including village watch committees and village savings and loan associations, to prevent and respond to GBV in their communities by engaging more systematically with GBV service providers and combatting harmful social norms that underpin GBV.
Increasing Demand for and Access to Vaccination Services
Nearly 74,000 zero-dose children were identified in Benin in 2022; reaching these zero-dose children is crucial to decreasing Benin’s child morbidity and mortality rate.5 MOMENTUM Routine Immunization Transformation and Equity is supporting Benin’s Ministry of Health by strengthening the health system’s capacity to increase access to and demand for routine immunization services. The project reinforces data management for improved decision-making at national and sub-national levels and establishes systems for tracking progress toward immunization targets. The project also provides technical assistance for logistics and the supply chain—particularly related to data collection, reporting, and use—to ensure vaccine supply when and where it is needed.
Our Achievements in Benin
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106 private clinics supported
MOMENTUM supports 106 private clinics in Benin to provide health care for women and children.
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30 local organizations supported
MOMENTUM is working with 30 local organizations in Benin to promote and advocate for quality health care in their communities.
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19,000 unique users
As of July 2023, the MOMENTUM-supported Tata Annie chatbot saw more than 19,000 unique users, mostly between the ages of 20 and 24.
MOMENTUM Private Healthcare Delivery: Association Béninoise pour le Marketing Social et la Communication pour la Santé (ABMS)
Interested in partnering with us or learning more about our work in Benin? Contact us here or check out our West Africa Regional Brief.
Learn more about USAID’s work in Benin.
References
- USAID and Sustaining Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) Plus. Sources of Family Planning: Benin. November 2019. https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00WQ1Q.pdf.
- Toshiko Kaneda, Charlotte Greenbaum, and Carl Haub, 2022 World Population Data Sheet (Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau, 2022), https://2022-wpds.prb.org/.
- Power, Christine et al. “Youth Family Planning Policy Scorecard.” Population Reference Bureau. 2022. https://scorecard.prb.org/youthfpscorecard/en/.
- World Bank. “For women and girls in Benin, multi-faceted gender reforms offer new opportunities.” March 1, 2023. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2023/03/01/for-women-and-girls-in-benin-multi-faceted-gender-reforms-offer-new-opportunities
- Gavi. “Benin: Key Immunization Indicators.” 2023. https://www.gavi.org/programmes-impact/country-hub/africa/benin
Last updated February 2024.