CHAPTER TWO: HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND CURRENT CHALLENGES __________________________________________________________________________ 86. However, despite this encouraging economic recovery, Benin is facing other persistent problems: considerable poverty (a third of the population lives below the poverty line), corruption, the major role played by the informal economy, a lack of infrastructures, and an uncompetitive agricultural and industrial sector. Furthermore, the importance of trade with neighbouring countries makes Benin vulnerable to changes in the region. 87. Although the programme signed with the IMF in August 2005, under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (FRPC), can help Benin to revive its structural reforms while maintaining its focus on the priority social sectors, it seem unlikely that the MDGs will be achieved by 2015 even if significant progress will have been made in some social sectors by then (see Chapter Six). 88. Nevertheless, the national authorities are optimistic about the emergence of Benin in the years to come. To this end, the policy of the present government is based on four priorities: (i) human resources; (ii) consultative governance; (iii) promotion of an entrepreneurial spirit; and (iv) construction of a new infrastructure. The government’s ultimate ambition is to transform Benin into an emerging country. 89. As mentioned earlier, the vision of an emerging Benin – Alafia Bénin 2025 – has been translated into developmental strategies for the period 2006 to 2011. These have been adopted and concern the following main strategies: the reconstruction of the administration; the promotion of economic recovery; a resolute pursuit of structural reforms (harbours, telecommunications, water and electricity); the development of human capital (free primary education); and the promotion of grass-roots development through decentralisation. These initiatives serve as a basis for the formulation of a GPRS (second-generation) for the period 2007 to 2009. This document constitutes the reference framework for dialogue with TFPs with a view to the mobilisation and coordination of resources. 90. At the political level, following the National Sovereign Conference in February 1990 (see Box 2.2), Benin opted for a multiparty democracy based on the promotion of human rights and basic freedoms. The political transformation gradually built on the democratic foundations. Consequently, since the elections of 1991, the electoral process was affirmed, thereby facilitating the changeover of political power and wide participation of the population in presidential, legislative and local elections. Today, Benin is often cited as a model of democracy in Africa. Box 2.2: The National and Sovereign Conference of the Bone and Sinew of the Nation (La Conférence Nationale des Forces Vives de la Nation) Owing to unprecedented and ongoing economic and political crises in Benin, at the end of 1989 President Kérékou agreed to convene a National Conference of the Bone and Sinew of the Nation, to which the army subscribed. In the course of the proceedings, the conference proclaimed itself to be ‘sovereign’. 54