Covid-19

Benin is one of the first African countries that took measures to contain the propagation of Covid-19. Beginning of March restrictions were announced for passengers from countries affected at that time by the virus. And the measures have since then been gradually further defined.

The PMAF project team in Benin follows these government measures closely: facilities of disinfection have been put in place at the project offices in Cotonou and meetings are limited in number and size. The Dutch permanent advisor in Benin has temporarily returned to the Netherlands with one of the last flights. The communication between the experts in Benin and those in Europe continues through email, Skype, Whatsapp and other tools. Despite some difficulties in the speed and and stability of the connections, we are happy to see that the online communication is sufficiently good to maintain the project progress, at this stage.

In the present phase of the project most of the work in these months can be done in the office; For the moment only a workshop with civil society organisations has been postponed because of the measures. But we intend to organize the workshop in smaller groups, The other activities of the project are most administrative and technical activities that can be done in Cotonou in close and good communication with the colleagues of ANDF.

Fortunately the direct impact of the Covid-crisis in Benin remains rather limited. It is expected that soon the restrictions will be gradually reduced. That would be great, because we are all increasingly looking forward to meet again and work together, in the field as soon as the situation allows that.