Benin

Benin is a small, coastal country in West Africa. It extends from the humid Gulf of Guinea in the south to the drier Sahelian zone in the north (Figure 1) and is home to diverse ecological zones and livelihood systems. Southern Benin benefits from two rainy seasons, strong market integration, and relatively diversified livelihoods, while central and northern areas rely on unimodal rainfall and mixed cropping and agropastoral systems. Countrywide, livelihoods are dominated by smallholder rainfed agriculture, complemented by livestock rearing, fishing, trade, and informal employment. Rural households primarily access food through own crop production, particularly maize, cassava, yams, sorghum, millet, and rice, supplemented by market purchases during the lean seasons, while livestock and fishing contribute to diets in northern and coastal areas, respectively. Urban households are almost entirely dependent on market purchases for food and earn income mainly from informal trade, services, transport, and wage labor. For both rural and urban households, food purchases constitute the largest share of expenditures, followed by agricultural inputs in rural areas and housing, and transportation, health, education, and other basic services in urban centers.

While acute food insecurity remains relatively limited in much of the country, it is a growing concern in northern areas due to increasing conflict and insecurity in recent years. Since 2019, the expansion of violent extremist activity from neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger has increasingly affected northern border areas, particularly Alibori and Atacora departments. Growing insecurity is disrupting livelihoods, restricting mobility, limiting access to agricultural land and markets, and driving forced, often repeated displacements. Rising food, fuel, and agricultural input prices, especially in conflict-affected areas, are also eroding purchasing power for poor households. Additional hazards include recurrent flooding in southern and riverine areas and erratic rainfall and dry spells in the north. Structural vulnerabilities, including persistently high poverty in rural and northern areas, further limit households’ ability to cope with and recover from successive shocks. Atacora and Alibori departments are areas of highest concern, due to the impacts of conflict that are increasing populations’ risk of acute food insecurity.