I recently came across the results of
Benin's 2006 Demographic and Health Survey. Many of the findings were
fascinating. Several support my contention that the most important thing
Benin can do to promote development is to send children –
especially girls – to school.
Here are some of the more interesting
findings:
Fertility
Average number of children per woman:
5.7
If the mother is uneducated: 6.4
If the mother attended secondary
school: 3.4
Marriage
Median marriage age for women: 18.6
years
If the woman is uneducated: 18.1
years
If the woman attended secondary
school: 22.2 years
Median marriage age for men: 24.5 years
Percentage of men who marry under age
21: 16%
Percentage of women who marry under age
21: 64%
Percentage of women ages 15-49 in polygamous
marriages: 43%
Family Planning
Married women using a modern form of
contraceptive: 7%
If the woman is uneducated: 4%
If the woman attended secondary school: 19%
Reproductive Health
Babies delivered with the assistance of a
health professional: 78%
Babies delivered by a nurse or midwife:
69%
Babies delivered by a doctor: 5%
Babies delivered by a nursing
assistant: 4%*
(*In my health center, half or more of
babies are delivered by the nursing assistant. The others are
delivered by the midwife or occasionally the pharmacist. There is no
doctor on staff. Perhaps half of births, however, happen at home,
even though delivering at home is illegal and subject to a fine.)
Child Health
Children having received all their
vaccinations as babies: 47%
If the mother has no education: 43%
If the mother has a secondary school
education: 80%
Breastfeeding and Nutrition
Children who were breastfed: 95%
Median length of breastfeeding: 21.4
months
Median length of exclusive
breastfeeding: 1.7 months*
(*The national recommendation is 6
months. International recommendations range from 4-6 months.)
Children ages 6-59 months with anemia:
78%
Children under age 5 with retarded
growth: 43%
Child Mortality
Under 5 mortality rate: 12.5%
If the mother is uneducated: 14.3%
If the mother attended secondary
school: 8.4%
Female Genital Mutilation
National rate: 13%
Rate in Alibori (my region): 48%
Rate amongst Baribas: 74%
Rate amongst Peulhs: 72%
HIV/AIDS
Prevalence of HIV: 1.2%
Status of Women
Percentage of women who work: 88%
Percentage of these women who decide
themselves what to do with their earnings: 87%
Percentage of women who believe a man can beat his
wife for a particular reason: 47%
Percentage of women who believe a woman can refuse sexual relations with her husband: 50%
You are so right-education for women. I find it interesting that 87% of women decide for themselves what to do with their earnings. That sounds so liberated, but in so many other ways they're not. What do you know about genital mutilation?
ReplyDeleteJean Ralley
I think most couples keep separate finances. In some families, the wives are responsible for the bulk of expenses. In my host family, for example, my host mom paid for food, school fees, clothes, and all other daily expenses for her family, whereas her husband paid for nothing for the family.
ReplyDeleteI have been told that female genital mutilation was very common at recently as 10 years ago in my village, but now it has become quite rare. My friend pointed out the tree under which it was regularly practiced in my village.
Good morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Benin? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Benin in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez
I was surprised the mortality rate for babies was as low as it is. I think years ago it was much higher.
ReplyDeleteI was also surprised at the high rate of vaccinations for the children of mothers with a secondary education.
It have been 7 years since the survey was done. Do you think the statistics have changed much?
The government has promoted vaccinations for babies a lot and they're free, so I'm not surprised so many women have had their babies vaccinated, especially educated women who understand the importance.
ReplyDeleteAs for what has changed in seven years, I didn't post the statistics on mosquito net usage and ownership because they have radically changed since. Since the survey, the government distributed millions of mosquito nets nationwide, one for every two people.