UNCLAS COTONOU 000309

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR PRM/AF NNENNA OFOBIKE AND AF/W DANA BANKS
ACCRA FOR EMILY MESTETSKY
ABIDJAN FOR PERLITA MUIRURI

E.0.12958:N/A
TAGS: PREF EAID BN TO
SUBJECT: BENIN'S FY 2008 PROPOSAL FOR THE TAFT FUND FOR REFUGEES

REF: (A) STATE 35430 (B) STATE 6779


1. SUMMARY: Based upon consultation with UNHCR/Benin, Embassy
Cotonou requests FY08 funding in the amount of 8.2 million FCFA
(approximately $19,700) from the Taft Fund for Refugees to fund
micro-credit projects intended for urban-based refugees and Togolese
refugees at the Agame refugee camp. END SUMMARY.


2. Embassy Cotonou received a proposal endorsed by the local UNCHR
office, from the Association de Lutte pour la promotion des
Initiatives de Developpement (Association for the Promotion of
Development Initiatives) or AliDe, to offer micro-credit projects to
60 urban-based refugees in Cotonou and to 80 camp-based Togolese
refugees at the Agame camp in western Benin. UNHCR has already
established a partnership with AliDe to enable urban refugees who
continue to depend on UNHCR assistance to attain self sufficiency.
The Agame Camp's portion of the micro-project is part of a strategy
to phase out assistance and assist the refugees with integration.


4. AliDe is a microfinance institution born out of the institutional
transformation of the savings and lending program of the French NGO
Initiative Developpement. Its mission is to offer impoverished
families living in poor neighborhoods in Cotonou and the surrounding
areas (often excluded from formal credit and savings systems)
sustainable access to productive loans, savings, training and
guidance. AliDe was licensed by the Ministry of Finance in 2003. It
has six agencies and one executive office. AliDe currently has over
5,000 active borrowers.


5. The project's primary objective is to provide urban-based
refugees and Togolese camp-based refugees with the financial means
and know-how to implement income-generating projects which they are
motivated to develop and ultimately, to manage them solely and
successfully. The project intends to provide a tool that contributes
to the enhancement of the capacity of refugees, particularly women,
to generate income and move towards self-sufficiency. The idea is
that the budget should be considered as a revolving fund, the
capital of which should remain unchanged. Costs related to the
management of the project, selection and training of beneficiaries,
and monitoring and evaluation, will not be deducted from the initial
amount allocated for micro financing but will be covered through the
interest on the loans.


6. As local integration is the primary goal for all refugees in
Benin and an ongoing repatriation program for Togolese refugees has
meant a simultaneous reduction in assistance to all Togolese
refugees, the project will help refugee families to become
self-sufficient and fully integrated members of the local community.
The project will target especially refugee women, notably those who
serve as the sole heads of household and for whom integration has
been difficult.


7. Like the Togolese, refugees from varying countries (including the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda, Burundi, Chad, Cote
d'Ivoire and others) living in urban areas of Benin require
integration programs such as this micro-credit project, in order to
provide them with skills necessary to provide for themselves and
their families without relying on assistance from UNCHR and its
partners. Such a program is of particular importance at the urban
level, as UNHCR discontinues assistance to long standing refugees
under the assumption that newly arrived refugees should have
priority and long standing refugees should be integrated into the
local community.


8. UNHCR lacks the funds to assure enough micro-projects for both
urban-based refugees and Togolese refugees in Agame. It is for this
reason that UNCHCR and its partner, AliDe, hope to implement this
project with the assistance of the Taft Fund for Refugees.


9. Embassy Cotonou has confirmed that AliDe has an appropriate
signed code of conduct for humanitarian workers. Embassy Cotonou
also certifies that it has authority and capacity to award a grant
to AliDe by the end of the fiscal year for the management and
implementation of the micro-credit projects as described above.


10. PRM's careful consideration and approval of this request will be
greatly appreciated.

BOUSTANI