CHAPTER THREE: DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL GOVERNANCE __________________________________________________________________________  The fight against corruption, a canker that has permeated all dimensions of society, including political, administrative, economic, social and even family life.  The bid to establish efficient and effective decentralised and local governance processes in order to foster socioeconomic development and advancement of the citizens. This makes it important to reorganise the state machinery, to improve representation, to take the people’s concerns into account, to ensure accountability right from the base, to transfer skills and resources, and to ensure the quality of basic services rendered.  Mounting insecurity, and the fight against both crime and organised crime in a transitional economy.  The need to clarify the relationship between modern and traditional governance in order to ensure increased participatory democracy with the active and official involvement of the traditional authorities in the Beninese society.  The gender issue, both in terms of its political dimension and how it ties in with sustainable development. Is it possible for Benin to become an emerging economy while 52% of the country’s population remains marginalised?  The country’s youth, which could be described as a virtual ‘time bomb’. Can we reasonably aspire to sustainable development with a demoralised youth that faces poverty and unemployment and has no professional prospects?  The continuing trafficking, exploitation and abuse of children, which has reached such alarming proportions that resistance to the eradication of this scourge seems now to be ingrained in local custom. 103. The ability of the political and democratic governance system to meet these challenges, in the short and medium terms, depends largely on the extent to which the people subscribe to the vision of building an ‘emerging Benin’ – a free and democratic society where everyone prospers. This chapter deals with these issues and recommends concrete actions to be taken to overcome the numerous challenges. 104. It is without doubt in this spirit that the new president of the republic has launched the ‘consultative governance’ concept. This is an approach based on regular consultation between all the active sectors of the nation – the authorities of the state, the diverse forms of civil society and the private sector – through a forum for consultation. 59