Benin after Live Aid

Benin is one of Africa's most stable democracies; it was the first African country to successfully convert from a dictatorship to pluralistic political system. However,  the economic picture is less rosy. While Benin has seen economic growth over the past few years and is one of Africa's largest cotton producers, it is severely underdeveloped. Classified as a low-income country and ranked160th out of 187 countries n the Human Development Index, about a third of the population lives below the international poverty line with more than a third of children under 5 suffering chronic malnutrition.

Although the economy relies heavily on trade with its eastern neighbour, Nigeria, agriculture is the economy's key sector. However, the sector suffers from extensive structural problems thanks to a lack of modern farming technologies and poor soil conditions. In addition, floods, droughts and the impact of the global financial crisis coupled with an increase in commodity prices have exacerbated an already fragile nutritional situation in the most vulnerable regions of the country. 

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Time Line

• 1975 Dahomey is renamed the People's Republic of Benin.

• 1979 Elections are held to the new Assemblee Nationale Revolutionnaire

• 1980 ANR unanimously elects Kerekou as president.

• 1987 The acute need for care facilities for orphaned and abandoned children grows. SOS Children construct their first community in Abomey-Calavi. 
  

• 1991President Kerekou is beaten by Nicephore Soglo in the first multi-candidate presidential elections. Nicéphore Soglo was elected President of the Republic with over 67% of the votes cast.

• 1996 Following accusations of irregularities in the presidential elections, the constitutional court announces that Kerekou has received the majority of valid votes cast.

• 1989 President Kerekou re-elected for a third term. Communism is abolished. Anti-government strikes and demonstrations take place.

• 1990 Mathieu Kérékou's government is dissolved and multiparty democracy introduced.
  

• 1991Kérékou is beaten by Nicéphore Dieudonné Soglo in the country's first multiparty democratic presidential elections. Benin becomes the first African country to successfully convert from a dictatorship to pluralistic political system.

• 1996 Following accusations of irregularities in presidential elections, the constitutional court announces that Kerekou has received the majority of valid votes cast.

• 1999 SOS Children's Village Natitingou opens.
  

• 2001 Mathieu Kérékou re-elected in second round of voting, after two of his main opponents withdraw having declared against electoral irregularities in the first round.

• 2006 Yayi Boni, an independent and Former West African Development Bank Director, takes power. World Bank and the African Development Bank approve debt relief for several countries including Benin. SOS Children open a third village;
  

  Dassa-Zoumé. The community includes a social centre which focuses on a community AIDS awareness project.

• 2009 Benin announces the discovery of sizeable oil deposits.

• 2010 Flooding affects much of the country. Thousands of Beninese people are made homeless. The maternal death rate remains high at 350 deaths per 100,000 live births, making Benin 30th worst in the world on this measure.
  

• 2011 President Yayi Boni is re-elected.

• 2012 Although Benin succeeds in lowering its HIV prevalence by 2.9%, rates are still high. SOS Children launch a Family Strengthening Programme, providing counselling and HIV/ AIDS support to orphaned and vulnerable children and their families in local communities.

• 2013 Infant mortality is 58.54 deaths per 1,000 live births, the 27th worst country in the world.