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Benin's Family Planning Budget Commitments
To support the achievement of its FP2030 commitments, the government of Benin pledged to progressively increase the budget allocation for the purchase of contraceptive commodities to 487 million West African CFA francs (FCFA) by 2026.
Given the impact of COVID-19 on donor resources for family planning (FP) and the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office aid cuts, domestic resource mobilization for FP has become more important than ever. In May 2022, Benin published its new FP2030 country commitments, including a financial commitment to increase the contraceptives allocation by 10% each year to reach FCFA 487 million in 2026. PAI partner Groupe de Recherche, d’Action et de Formation en Epidémiologie et en Dévelopement (GRAFED) participated in the committee that developed the commitments. Benin has a current costed implementation plan, the Plan d’Action National Budgetisé pour la Planification Familiale 2019-2023 au Benin. Both provide details on the government’s plans for increasing and spending domestic resources on FP supplies and services.
Benin’s Performance on the FY 2021 FP Budget Scorecard
Developed by GRAFED and Social Watch Benin, in collaboration with PAI, this scorecard is an advocacy tool highlighting the findings of the organizations’ FP budget tracking using the Common Framework, a set of indicators used for monitoring government spending on FP. In addition to collecting and analyzing data on a standard set of indicators, the scorecard evaluates the transparency of FP budget data. The scorecard is a product of PAI’s Government Accountability for Family Planning Budgets initiative.
According to the budget tracking data collected by GRAFED and Social Watch Benin for fiscal year (FY) 2021, the government allocated FCFA 280.5 million for the purchase of FP commodities in FY 2020, failing to reach the goal of FCFA 403 million. Importantly, the government fell even further short of this goal in FY 2021 with an allocation of only FCFA 100 million for FP commodities.
The government of Benin is commended for allocating 95.1% of the budget allocation for FP programs funding need though the government only allocated 9.5% of the budget allocation for FP commodities, the latter of which represents a decrease from the FP2020 data. The government should be commended for its commitments to make the Ministry of Health’s budget and quarterly budget execution reports publicly available on the website of the Directorate-General of the Budget. However, as the most recent scorecard shows, those efforts need to be followed through with timely publication of those reports.
Recommendations to strengthen government ownership of Benin’s FP programs and to improve the transparency of FP budget data include:
- Advocate for the timely disbursement of FP resources in order to increase the implementation rate of FP-related services and contributions.
- Create specific, dedicated budget lines for FP programs and the purchase of contraceptive products in the health sector budget.
- Advocate with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Decentralization for prioritization of FP in the distribution of the Communal Investment Fund to facilitate the inclusion of FP in communal budgets.
- Include a budget line item on FP funding in the Ministry of Health budget execution report.
Other Country Scorecards
