USAID / Benin - Success Stories

The Problem
Between 1975 and 1990, Benin was governed under a very centralized, socialistic, if not truly Marxist system that led to a series of strikes, bank closures and a general shutdown of most of the economic and social infrastructure of the country. A series of national debates were organized in the early 1990s to discuss what could be done to bring reform to each of the sectors of society. The participants at the forum on education, held in October 1990, decided that the future system should be more practical in terms of educating the children for the realities that faced them. They also agreed that civil society, especially the parents of school children, should be involved to a much greater extent. The system did change in some ways, but in general, parents continued to play a very marginal role in school affairs. This situation meant that change would be minimal because policies continued to be determined by those with a vested interest in maintaining the privileges they enjoyed under the old system. Without parents and civil society in general, the decisions of October 1990 would be stillborn.

The Beginnings of a Solution at the Local Level
Starting in the early 1990s, USAID opted to play a major role in assisting Benin to reform its education system. In 1993, the Agency requested World Education, a U.S. private voluntary organization (PVO), to propose a program that would encourage more parental involvement in the education sector as a way of breaking the logjam that was blocking real reform.

Based on its work in Mali, a team from World Education proposed a program that focused on strengthening the all but moribund parent-teacher's associations, known under their French acronym as Associations des parents d'élèves (APE). The program, known as PENGOP (Primary Education NGO Project) started in 1994 in two areas of the north and two areas of the south (equally rural and urban). The program strategy involved the training of trainers from local NGOs in organizational development (OD). The trained agents worked with the school-based parent associations (APE). They helped to strengthen organizational structures, identify priorities for school development, designed projects, and mobilized resources. The agents also assisted the APE to execute projects that were identified, such as construction or rehabilitation of school buildings or furniture. The agents also worked with APE's to increase participation in management of the schools' resources, contributed in part by the parents themselves.

Expansion of Benefits: Taking the Solution National
The PENGOP program grew from an initial 50 schools to over 1,300, and from two regions to all six (now 12) regions. Its influence grew beyond the actual parents' associations with which it worked. In September 2001, in collaboration with the national federation of parents' associations (FENAPEB), PENGOP leaders organized a national forum to discuss the recent allocation of Government of Benin (GOB) funds to schools (called "social measures"). These social measures were meant to lighten the burden on ordinary parents who had recently been hit by price rises triggered by the rise in the world prices for petroleum products. The National Forum agenda also included improvement of school management and the important role that civil society should play.

The National Forum took place in the city of Abomey-Calavi. The participants included parents' association representatives from all school districts of the country, teachers, school administrators, NGO representatives, and the representatives from various international organizations. The participants went beyond the originally stated agenda of improving management of government funds for school operations. National Forum participants knew that dealing with funds management meant that the overall "management environment" had to be addressed by the 150 participants.

School budget allocations from the GOB began in the 1999-2000 school year and continued for the 2001-2002 school year. Certain school directors and local school administration officials sought to keep the funds for themselves, citing the fact that since GOB funds were involved, the rules required civil servants to manage them. But this had not been the intention of the GOB, nor the World Bank (WB). (Note: The WB was the source of the funds that the GOB normally would have had to reimburse to the WB for past loans, but could now use for social programs like schools.)

Prior to the National Forum in 2001, the experiences from the 1999-2000 "social measures" were collected locally by district-level federations of parents' association. This information was discussed and synthesized, and recommendations were formulated at the regional level before being taken to the National Forum in Abomey-Calavi.

In the meantime, the GOB resolved that for the year 2001-2002, the "social measure" funds would be distributed in a way that would ensure that parents played a more important role than had been the case in the previous year. Discussions began within the ministries of education (In Benin, there are three education ministries, corresponding to the levels and type of teaching concerned.) and with the Ministry of Finance. Certain rules favoring the transparent handling of the funds were eventually sent out to the field in time for the school opening. But, unfortunately, they did not arrive in time for the National Forum itself. But this was a blessing in disguise. In fact, the new rules drew much of their content from the recommendations of the National Forum.

Specifically, the requirement that at least two signatures figure on bank or rural credit union checks involving the withdrawal of "social measures" funds from the parents' association account where they have been placed was emphasized. The signatories had to include at a minimum the president of the parents' association and the school director. The double-signature provision has been extended to all school financial operations.
The Present Situation

These changes are the fruit of the work of the different education programs, including PENGOP, supported by USAID/Benin. The unique contribution of the PENGOP has been to take the new operating procedures to the grassroots. Several parents' association federations at the district level, in association with the school district authorities, have opted to train school directors and A.P.E. presidents in their area of jurisdiction in the financial management procedures now required by the ministries of education. The main area of training involves the need for directors to discuss their draft annual budgets for their school with the A.P.E. To do this effectively, both parents and teachers need training in budget formulation and management.

Another result of the National Forum was to strengthen collaboration between World Education and the national federation of parents' associations, FENAPEB. This in turn has favored a much closer collaboration between World Education and the GOB. As a result of the Forum, for example, the Ministry of Education financial control division (DIVI), which is responsible for training school officials in financial management, has agreed to work more closely with World Education. Together these organizations will work to improve school financial management with parent association officials and teachers.

The PENGOP program has come a long way towards the achievement of its objective: greater involvement of civil society in the management of the national primary education system.

USAID/ Benin- Success Stories