By IPS Correspondents
COTONOU, Nov 8 2008 (IPS)

"Every change is a step backwards in this new era. It's disheartening," is Claire Houngan Ayémona's response to Benin's newly-appointed cabinet.

Ayémona is a former minister for families and social programmes, and currently of president of the non-profit Loving Heart based in Abomey-Calavi near Cotonou, Benin's economic capital. With only four of 30 ministerial seats assigned to women, the impression is that women will be left out of the change promised by the new regime.

When President Boni Yayi appointed his new government on Oct. 22, he reduced the percentage of women ministers from 23 percent – there were previously six women in a 26-strong cabinet – to just 13 percent.

More was to follow: two days later the Council of Ministers named 6 new prefects – all men – where there had been at least two women at the helm of territorial administration.

"This is the area in which Benin has the least chance of reaching the Millennium Development Goals by 2015," said Edith Gasana, the resident representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

"With the cabinet re-shuffle, one has to ask what the President thinks of women's governance. It is under this new regime of 'change' that a man was appointed to the head of the Constitutional Court, which has always been led by a woman," said Maxime Dossa, a civil society activist.

Célestine Zanou, however, dismissed the argument. The former cabinet director under previous president Mathieu Kérékou and an unsuccessful presidential candidate in the 2006 elections, Zanou said, "We don't need a government that ignores gender issues. There are more than enough qualified women in this country."

Challenges even came from the ruling alliance's own camp. "We hope that the President will take a gender-inclusive approach when filling decision-making posts," stated Benoît Dègla, spokesperson for the Cauri Forces for an Emerging Benin party, one of the supporters of the current government.

Work cut out for us

According to official statistics culled from the 2002 general census, women make up 52 percent of Benin's population yet lag behind on a number of social indicators.

Touching on this issue in a statement on United Nations Day, Oct. 24, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) representative Mamadou Dicko declared that "no country, no nation in history has developed leaving behind half its population.

"We cannot seriously contemplate developing the country while marginalising nearly 52 percent of its population – the same 52 percent that produces more than half of the national wealth," he said.

Women were elected to lead 3 out of 77 counties during the 2002-2003 elections. In 2008 the count was down to just one, he noted.

Statistics show that much more work needs to be done to integrate women into a successful and sustainable development process in this West African country. According to Dicko, women's literacy rate is only 31.4 percent versus 56.2 percent for men.

Schooling rates reach 60 percent for girls versus 68.4 percent for boys, whereas only 0.5 percent of those in higher education are women.

Dicko also stated that 22.7 percent of heads of household are women and 30 percent of family planning needs go unmet.

It is dismal statistics like these that make Honorine Attikpa say: "We've got our work cut out for us." Attikpa is the president of the Cotonou-based non-governmental organization Women's Dignity.

The Beninois government stressed the elimination of gender discrimination as part of its 2006 platform for change. However the street-level impact of the government stance leaves much to be desired.

Women are less likely then men to have formal employment, to be on party tickets or to be named to decision-making roles. And yet, Gasana adds, women are "king-makers" since its impossible for a man with political aspirations – whether local or national – to win without women's support.

But Dossa doesn't let women off the hook. "I believe that women have to take up the struggle and fight for recognition, they won't win without joining forces. They represent more than half of the population and yet how many women have they elected to parliament?" he asks.

The number of women in parliament went up from 6 in the previous legislature to 9 in the current one – progress so timid that it has spurred activists to call for a quota for women's participation in decision-making bodies.

"However I would move beyond the debate regarding quotas, since women like men can contribute in a number of ways to our country above and beyond being in the executive branch of the government," stressed Dossa. "There are other spheres in which women can express themselves and thrive."

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