Benin in Sub-Saharan Africa: Living below Poverty Line

Benin is a country found in Sub-Saharan Africa more commonly known as (SSA). According to the CIA as of a report published in year 2007, 37% of Benin’s population lived below the poverty line. This indicates that nearly half of the inhabitants of Benin live below the dollar-a-day poverty line. The poverty line is established in regards to the understanding that it takes at least a dollar to provide the minimum standard of living for individuals on a day to day basis. Benin’s main source of income is agriculture. Cotton is at the forefront of Benin’s economic income making up 40% of total GDP. This provides a problem because of a decrease in the cost of cotton over the years, due to subsidied cotton production in other countries around the world. Subsistence farming also plays a major part in cotton farming troubles. Because over half of Benin’s population practices subsistence farming, many of the natural land and resources are used up. Other exports in Benin consist of crude oil, palm oil, cocoa and seafood. The other 60% of GDP is made up through services, and industry accounting for 15 and 52 percents respectively. While over the years Benin has witnessed great strides toward it’s goal of ending poverty, it still holds the the title of an LIC or Low Income Country..The worldwide recession in 2009 played a large role in hindering the economies advances. Before 2009 Benin’s growth rate was at 4% but dropped to a mere 2.7%. 2010 saw Benin rebound but not by much at 3%. Benin has been working to establish a sound economy focusing more attention on tourism, investment from foreign countries, improvements to food processing and technological advancements. A few factors that are hurting Benin’s chances at economic recovery are a poor infrastructure,corruption, the existence of a weak industry, lack of a competitive trade market and environmental disasters.
Poor Infrastructure In a report by Carolina Domínguez-Torres and Vivien Foster, it was noted that