ABSTRACT
The mechanism in policy formulation and policy changes in the Republic of Benin remains the work of a small group of experts and government officials rather than a concrete result of social dialogue, participatory action and the protection of the access to cultural participation. The result of such an exclusive approach faces the same challenges like most African countries’ cultural policies documents. These challenges include, but are not limited to, incoherent and inappropriate cultural policy instruments, inadequate policy models, resulting into inoperative policy strategic projects. This chapter aims to extensively document the history of the cultural policies in Benin through the analysis of Benin’s different cultural strategies since 1972 till 2021: Discourse Program of New Policy of National Independence (1972), Cultural Charter in the Republic of Benin (1991), Benin Government Action Programme 2016–2021 and its Cultural Policy strategic orientation (2016–2021). It will therefore outline the concrete positive and negative impact of the cultural policy implementation and will make some recommendations for a more effective and coherent cultural policy formulation in Benin. This chapter tends to make an original contribution to the research and documentation in the field of cultural policy in Benin and provoke more thoughts on various cultural policy processes and instruments.
