Benin report - Institut Africain de la Gouvernance

CHAPTER THREE: DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL GOVERNANCE__________________________________________________________________________336. The new Individual and Family Code has made significant strides in theinheritance law for widows and widowers. It has also made provision forimproving the plight of widows. Generally, however, social practice is verydifferent from law. In order to address these deficiencies, the governmentdeveloped a national action plan for the “active ageing”, with the collaborationof the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in 2006. The objectives ofthis plan are to promote the good health and welfare of the elderly, to reducetheir poverty levels from 33.4% to 17% by 2016, to discourage the socialexclusion of elderly people, and to improve the socioeconomic anddemographic awareness about elderly people and their differing gender needs.Implementing this plan requires human and material resources, which seem tobe lacking.iii.Recommendations of the APR Panel337. The APR Panel recommends that government should:Promote a more active integration of refugees, in partnership with the UN.Develop a strategy for the promotion and protection of the disabled.Strengthen the fight against the culture of rejection of disabled childrenthrough sensitisation and education, and take severe action against themurderers of newborns.Strengthen health structures for the diagnosis and early screening ofdiseases likely to lead to disability, and for antenatal medical tests.Ensure decent living conditions for the disabled, whose reducedintellectual or physical capabilities hamper their self-sufficiency andincrease their dependency on family resources.Strengthen community life and revitalise associations fighting for thepromotion and protection of the disabled.Speed up the implementation of the national action plan for active ageing.Establish a system of health care for the elderly and provide adequatesocial and economic security.Encourage the social and medical mentoring of elderly people.Establish a system of social support to facilitate the care of the elderlywithin their own families.129