Togo: the situation we found

The Savannah region is the area of the country with the greatest development problems. Female education is a problem throughout Togo. Lack of schooling penalises girls, 65.6% of whom are unable to read or write, against 29.7% of boys.

A very large number of girls drop out of school because it’s easier to find a future working in the fields, marrying early and having a lot of children. In the Savannah region agriculture is the main activity and the cultivation of tomatoes has a significant role, but despite this the organisation in the production chain is weak and insufficient. Tomatoes are produced from September to May and yields alternate, from excess production that drives prices down below cost to poor harvests that drive prices above what the public can afford.

There are groups of women that work in the production chain and also in rudimentary transformation processes (dried tomatoes and pulp production). But this happens without adequate professional training, in a disorganised way and with little attention to quality

Fact Sheet

CAPITAL: Lomé.

TERRITORY: Togo is a strip of land almost 57,000 square kilometres wedged between Burkina Faso to the North for just 126 km, Ghana to the west and Benin to the East. It is on the Gulf of Guinea.

FORM OF GOVERNEMENT: Presidential Republic.

POPULATION: 6,145,000. it is 159th place among the 182 poorest countries in the world. 61.7% of the population is below the poverty line, rising to 90.6% (92.4% In rural areas) in the Savannah region.

ECONOMY: Agriculture, sea and lake fishing, stock breeding.

DATA SOURCE: UNDP (United Nations Development Program).