The Republic of Benin is a lower-middle-income West African country between Nigeria and Togo, and also bordering Burkina Faso and Niger. It has a 75-mile coastline on the Bight (Bay) of Benin off the Atlantic Ocean. Its population of 14.7 million is equally split between urban and rural, but is concentrated in and around the cities on the southern coast.
The country suffers from widespread poverty, with and estimated 38.5% below the national poverty line. Benin’s expenditure on education of 3.7% GDP puts it at 122:201 of all countries, or an estimated 18% of its national budget for 2025.
As a lower-middle income country, it is not surprising that Benin experiences an education/learning deficit. However, it is also experiencing a gender gap in the provision of schooling for girls and in the subsequent learning outcomes of girls. This gap has been recognized and has received attention from the government, as well as NFP and international organizations.
Learning Poverty
The learning poverty rate, a metric initiated in 2019 by the World Bank and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, measures the proportion of children who are unable to read a simple text with comprehension by age 10, and takes into account both schooling and learning. It is seen as an early indication of risks to the overall quality of education.
In 2024, the World Bank reported Benin’s learning poverty as “unacceptably high.” Its component scores (for learning deprivation and schooling deprivation), however, are better than the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) average and better than the average for lower-middle-income (LMC) countries. Still, Benin’s primary education expenditure per primary education age child was 50% below the average for SSA and 69% below the LMC average.
Literacy and Education Gender Gap
Only just over half of the Beninese population (51.4%) is literate. But this statistic masks the literacy gender gap: the adult literacy for Beninese women is 36.4%, compared to the literacy of men at 57.9%. This 21.5% gap is larger than the aggregate sub-Saharan African (SSA) gap of 12.4%, and larger than the gap for lower-middle income (LMC) adults (gap of 12.3%). Beninese men also spend two years longer in school than women, 12 years as compared to 10 years.
The Beninese literacy gender gap is the product of multiple variables. Girls are expected to assume domestic responsibilities, which is reinforced by the practice of child marriage; one out of three girls is married before the age of 18. Insufficient access to sexual and reproductive health exacerbates this situation, as does the disruption in school attendance because of menstruation. As a result, the education of boys is prioritized over that of girls. In addition, girls are more exposed to gender-based violence in and around school.
Addressing Learning Poverty of Women
There have been both national and international efforts and projects to improve the education of Beninese women over the last decade.
SWEDD. Launched in 2015 by the World Bank, through the International Development Association, the Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend Project (SWEDD) targeted Benin and eight other African countries. Its purpose was to address “the root causes of child marriage, teenage pregnancy, and early school drop-out among adolescent girls” and, at the same time, to promote the economic empowerment of young women. This regional initiative included support for community-based clubs for adolescent girls and young women (Safe Spaces), and improved access to high-quality reproductive and maternal health supplies and services. It is estimated that SWEDD has reached more than 2 million girls in total.
In July 2025, the SWEDD Regional Steering Committee validated action plans for 2025, to focus on adolescent girls’ empowerment as a driver of sustainable development: “The future of Africa lies in its daughters. The time to act is now.”
The Future Leader Project. Together Women Rise, a U.S.-based NFP “dedicated to global gender equality,” has sponsored the Batonga Foundation and its Future Leaders Project in 2018. Funded at $48.000, the project targeted at-risk (vulnerable and underserved) girls, creating 64 Girls’ Clubs to improve academic and economic opportunities. Batonga was set to reach 10,000 adolescent girls and young women by 2025.
Global Partnership for Education, Girls’ Education: The Global Partnership for Education has been working with the government of Benin to improve the country’s quality of education. Primary school teaching and learning was the focus of a 2020-2023 $19.4 million GPE grant.
In 2025, GPE funded a $12.85 million Girls’ Education Accelerator grant to increase school enrollment of girls 5 to 15, to ensure access to quality alternative education for girls outside the education system and to strengthen girls’ capacity for participation and decision-making in their learning.
National Program for Accelerating the Education and Well-being of Girls in Benin.
National Program for Accelerating the Education and Well-being of Girls in Benin. Established in July 2024 by the Beninese government, this five-year, $155.8 million initiative aims to expand free schooling for girls and increase enrollment. Its key components include supporting out-of-school girls, helping those from vulnerable households stay in school, building life skills and improving health awareness, and facilitating the transition from school to work through economic empowerment programs.
Advancing Gender-Responsive Education. The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) has collaborated with the International Development Research Center on the Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX) to strengthen education systems in developing countries to achieve the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goal 4: inclusive and equitable quality education for all. In November 2024, the GPE KIX Women in Learning Leadership: Advancing Gender-Responsive Education Using Evidence Project (WILL-AGREE) met with Benin government experts in education, social affairs and statistics and demography. Their purpose was to design a survey that would produce information related to school leadership and gender equity and ultimately lead to an increase in the representation of women in school leadership roles.
Improving Beninese Girls’ Education: A Multi-Pronged Approach
The learning poverty of Beninese girls has multiple causes and tackling it has many paths—social, economic, and academic. The projects and efforts described here seek to address these different needs. In addition, enhancing the role of women in school leadership is a significant way to increase the educational system’s understanding of the impact of these issues on girls’ education and to provide very visible role models for young women.
– Lolontika Hoque
Photo: Flickr
