The U.S. State Department’s top African diplomat said Thursday that forces loyal to defeated Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo are beginning to crumble. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson is urging both sides in the Ivory Coast conflict to show restraint and avoid urban fighting in the capital, Abidjan. 

Economic Overview and Performance

Benin is a small country with a population estimated at 9.3 million in 2009. Important economic and structural reforms, supported by the IMF and the World Bank, helped Benin sustain growth rates averaging 4.7 percent annually during the last decade, resulting in modest increases in its per capita income (US$750) as well as improvements in human development. Nevertheless, poverty remains widespread and the economy remains undiversified and vulnerable to external shocks. Benin’s economy relies on the agriculture sector, in particular cotton, and transit trade with Nigeria. The agriculture sector accounts for about 32 percent of GDP and is the source of livelihood for nearly 70 percent of the country’s workforce. Cotton is the primary export commodity with about 40 percent of total exports over 2007 to 2008. Transit trade with Nigeria is estimated to represent between 6.5 and 7.5 percent of GDP and explains the vulnerability of the economy to trade policy changes in its neighboring and main trading partner.

Malaria control is considered a prerequisite for development in Benin, given its high incidence and negative impact on human and economic development.

The Benin Malaria Control Booster Project, a US$31 million IDA grant, will permit countrywide scaling up of the GoB’s Roll Back Malaria Strategy with 1) long lasting insecticide treated bed nets,

2) prompt treatment with artemisinin-based combination therapies and

3) development of recurrent information systems for program management.

With parallel investments in the health system and in other sectors through a Poverty Reduction Support Credit, the scale-up strategy provides a malaria-specific “boost” to bring down disease transmission.

The project aims to distribute about 1.7 million LLINs and treat about 3.7 million people-approximately 2.5 million children under age 5-with ACTs over the four-year life of the project. By the end of 2007, 1.4 million LLINs will be delivered to children under age 5, and a national malaria monitoring and evaluation framework and operational plan will have been developed and endorsed by the Ministry of Health. By the end of 2010, 300,000 pregnancies will have been made safer through improved antenatal care that includes distribution of LLINs to pregnant women and intermittent preventive treatment for malaria.

As a result of worst flooding in West African nation of Benin, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR is to start an emergency airlift of tents this week to aid locals. Some 3,000 tents will be flown in from Denmark to provide shelter for some of the estimated 680,000 people affected.Two-thirds of Benin has suffered from months of heavy rain, and about 800 cases of cholera have been reported, according to the BBC.