Cotonou, 14 September, 2023 / 8:58 pm (ACI Africa).
Ahead of the national conference on population growth and development in Benin, the leadership of the Catholic Christian Observatory for Governance (OCCG), an organ of the Episcopal Conference of Benin (CEB), is calling on citizens to follow the deliberations with a “critical and creative conscience.”
In a memorandum titled, “Demography, culture and development” that was presented to journalists on Tuesday, September 12 in Cotonou, members of OCCG weigh in on the initiative that the government of Benin had announced would take place in September, aimed at identifying the best way to manage population dynamics in order to ensure that the West African country’s development does not slow down.
“We have a common objective to achieve at the Conference on Demography and Development: to improve the living conditions and fulfillment of all citizens, now and in the future, on the basis of a shared vision of our future and a break with the preconceived and pre-established ideas that people would have us slavishly adopt,” OCCG members say.
They further say, “The national responsibility of all Beninese men and women to face up to the challenges of Demography and Development is a call to their critical and creative conscience.”
“The challenge is to avoid repeating and applying on our national territory the demographic theories and practices of other nations that have defined their vision of society, and not adopted that of others, in order to tackle the problems of development and behavior linked to sexuality, marriage and the family,” say the members of OCCG in their 10-page memorandum.
