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The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of a country with severe problems in the telecommunications sector, including corruption and maladministration.

The paper presents a review of the legislation and regulatory decisions over the last decade, plus prosecutions in the USA for bribery in the country.

The paper reveals that, despite a decade of external efforts to encourage the use of information communication technology to boost development, very little progress has been made in terms of policy, legislation and regulation. No lessons appear to have been learned; the same mistakes could be repeated.

Further case studies are required from West Africa to provide a more complete picture and to assess whether equally serious problems exist in the region.

There is a need for a review of the legislation both for telecommunications and for corruption, with considerable strengthening of institutions and proper democratic accountability.

Citizens in this country have seen much greater access to mobile telephony, but in a haphazard way. There has been no regard for their interests (e.g. higher charges), nor consideration of how bribery, high licence fees and avoidance of customs duties affect them.

This is one of the few case studies of telecommunications in West Africa. It addresses issues of corruption, an issue seldom discussed.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate rice farmers’ perceptions on the manifestations of the climate change and identify efficient strategies and determinants of adoption of these strategies in the Republic of Benin.

Surveys were conducted using participatory research appraisal tools and techniques, such as direct observation, individual interviews and field visits through a questionnaire for data collection. A total of 418 rice farmers across 39 villages located in the three climatic zones of the Republic of Benin were interviewed. Farmers’ perceptions, temperature from 1952 to 2018 and rainfall from 1960 to 2018 data obtained from meteorological stations were analysed using descriptive and inferences statistics.

All the surveyed farmers were aware of climate change and perceived diverse manifestations including the delay in rainfall regarded as the most important risk. They perceived that deforestation, no respect for the laws of nature and desacralization of morals, no respect for cultures and the traditional rainmakers are the main causes of climate change. The disruption of agricultural calendar and the reduction in rice yield were perceived as the main impacts of climate change in rice production. They used various approaches to adapt and mitigate climate change effects. The adoption of adaptation strategies was influenced either negatively or positively by the household size, land size, education level, membership to rice farmer’s association, training in rice production, access to extension services, use of improved varieties and the location in climatic zones.

For each climatic zone of the Republic of Benin, weather data were collected in only one meteorological station.

The study showed that it is important to educate rice farmers on the scientific causes of climate change for better resilience. There is an urgent need to train rice farmers in irrigation and water management techniques to cope with climate variability. To promote irrigation, the authors suggest the establishment of a subsidy and credit mechanism by the government. Factors that influenced adoption of efficient adaptation strategies to climate events must be taken into account for future adaptation policies in the Republic of Benin.

This study provided an overview of the perceptions and adaptations of rice farmers along the climatic gradient in the Republic of Benin. Therefore, the knowledge of the determining factors of the adaptation strategies used by rice farmers could be used in the setting up of effective climate change resilience policies in Benin.

To satisfy donors and reduce public procurement acquisition prices, Benin has implemented and amended its first public procurement code guided by top-down principles of good governance.

This study aims to measure the impact of the code and its amendment on public procurement acquisition prices of health-care equipment from 1995 to 2010.

A segmented linear regression analysis was performed using interrupted time-series data. The analysis shows that the code and its amendment did not reduce acquisition prices, indicating the limited impact of the code. The authors recommend the implementation of bottom-up processes in establishing the public procurement system, and the development of a reference pricelist of the most widely used health-care equipment, as possible solutions for improving the effectiveness of the code.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the local communities' perception of climate variation effects on crop production and the adopted strategies by farmers in order to cope with the negative effects of climate on the agriculture in the coastal zone of Benin.

A total of 290 agricultural households were sampled and surveyed through structured interviews. The principal component analysis (PCA) was performed on the relative frequencies citation of perceived climate variation indication in order to describe the relationship between risk perceptions according to socio‐demographic characteristics. The relative frequency of citation was calculated according to age, gender, ethnic group and agro‐ecological region.

Results showed that almost 83 per cent of the respondents already perceived the climate change risks through several indications. Climate variation perception varied with respect to age. Respondents' opinion regarding climate variation causes depended generally on their age, religion and level of education. As far as climate variation risks impact on crop production is concerned, the respondents' opinions diverged.

The assessment of local communities' perception is important to design participatory and sustainable measures to cope with harmful effects of climate variation on crop production.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the state of government accounting in Ghana and Benin using neo-patrimonial and organizational façade lenses.

The study used two country case studies that engaged with stakeholders including donors, civil society, politicians, and civil servants. Semi-structured interviews were used as the main data collection technique, which were complemented by document analysis.

The study finds that government accounting reforms are decoupled and used in both countries as a façade which is caused, to a varying degree, by indigenous neo-patrimonial governance traits of informal institutions, patronage, and clientelism. And despite the relatively superior Ghanaian system, in terms of its functioning, compared to the Beninese, government accounting plays a more symbolic role in the former than in the latter.

This is one of the very few theoretically informed empirical studies that examine the state of government accounting in the two major African settings – Anglophone and Francophone. The results inform policies more tailored to indigenous governance issues for better outcomes.

This document analyses farmers' preferences and willingness to pay (CAP) for microcredit, in order to facilitate their access in rural areas.

Data are based on a discrete choice experiment with 400 randomly selected farmers from 20 villages of the 7 Benin agricultural development hubs (ADHs). The preference choice modelling was performed using mixed logit (MXL) and latent class logit (LCL) models. Farmers' willingness to pay for each preferred attribute was estimated. The endogenous attribute attendance (EAA) model was also used to capture attribute non-attendance (ANA) phenomenon.

The results indicate that, on average, farmers prefer individual loans, low interest rates, in kind + cash loans, cash loans, disbursement before planting and loans with at least 10-month duration. These preferences vary according to farmers' classes. Farmers are willing to pay higher or lower interest rates depending on attribute importance. The estimate of the EAA model indicates that, when taking the ANA phenomenon into consideration, people will show stronger attitudes regarding WTP for important factors.

Based on these results from Benin, microfinance institutions (MFIs) in developing countries can, based on the interest rates currently charged, attract more farmers as customers, reviewing the combination of the levels of the attributes associated with the nature of the loan, the type of loan (individual or collective), the disbursement period of funds, the waiting period of the loan and the loan duration. However, the study only considered production credit, ignoring equipment or investment credit.

The document provides information on the key factors that can facilitate producers' access to MFI products and services.

Facilitating small farmers' access to financial service will contribute to poverty reduction.

This research contributes to the knowledge of the attributes and attribute levels favoured by farmers when choosing financial products and the amounts they agree to pay for these attributes. The implementation of the results would facilitate small producers' access to financial services; thus contributing to poverty reduction.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the job quality in Benin between 2007 and 2011. To do this, the study constructed a multidimensional measure of job quality and identified the determinants of the quality of the job. The measure adopted by the authors includes four dimensions: wages; extra-wage benefits and regularity of employment; conditions and career opportunities; and, finally, social security. Two methods, including the construction of measure of job quality and the estimation of determinants of the job quality index, were used to test the robustness of the effects. The results show that the quality of job improved slightly between 2007 and 2011 and that factors such as experience, the type of contract, the level of education, the formal character of the company and the work hours explain the job quality of workers in Benin.

The measure adopted by the authors includes four dimensions: wages; extra-wage benefits and regularity of employment; conditions and career opportunities; and, finally, social security. Two methods, including the construction of measure of job quality and the estimation of determinants of the job quality index, were used to test the robustness of the effects.

The results show that the quality of job improved slightly between 2007 and 2011 and that factors such as experience, the type of contract, the level of education, the formal character of the company and the work hours explain the job quality of workers in Benin.

The contribution of this study lies in its analytical approach and in the fact that it reinforces the knowledge that exists on this theme, which is still little studied in African countries.