The Center for Partnership and Expertise for Sustainable Development (CePED) is a non-profit, social and scientific Public Establishment with administrative and financial autonomy. Placed under the supervision of the Ministry for the Coordination of Government Action, the Center for Partnership and Expertise for Sustainable Development (CePED) is a public institutional instrument for developing expertise, promoting and managing southern partnerships. -south and north-south in terms of sustainable development.  

WHAT DOES THE CePED DO ?

The CePED is a center which acts simultaneously as an executing agency, a central program office and a study office whose mission is to provide support to actors for the sustainable implementation of policies and strategies of development. It assumes this mission through three areas of intervention, namely the strengthening of expertise, the development of partnerships and capitalization.

1 - Strengthening expertise

• Develop support models for actors for the sustainable implementation of development policies and strategies;
• Strengthen the technical and operational capacities of actors for the sustainable implementation of development policies and strategies; Formulate and/or contribute to the formulation of projects and programs;

2 - Development of partnerships

• Develop a network of inclusive and integrated partnerships at the sub-national, national and international levels for the mobilization of resources and skills necessary to build the capacities of actors for the sustainable implementation of development initiatives;
• Promote the exchange of knowledge and experiences through south-south and triangular technical cooperation;

3 - Capitalization

• Capitalize on models for implementing policies and strategies, then on all other achievements aimed at promoting the green economy and sustainable development;
• Create and update the directory of national and international experts for the sustainable implementation of development policies and strategies in Benin.  

HISTORIQUE DU CePED

Adhering to the principles of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development of June 1992, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Republic of Benin signed on March 21, 1994 a partnership agreement called the Agreement on Sustainable Development (ADD) . The Netherlands has signed the same Agreement with Bhutan and Costa Rica. This Agreement, based on the principles of equality, reciprocity and participation, reflects the will of the Government of Benin to promote the integration of the logic of sustainable development in all development policies and actions by defining own strategy. In each of these countries, an institutional instrument called the National Mechanism (MN) has been put in place to manage the said Agreements on a daily basis. In the case of Benin, the National Mechanism was the Beninese Center for Sustainable Development (CBDD).

Drawing lessons from years of implementation of the SDAs, Benin, Bhutan and Costa Rica signed in Johannesburg in August 2002 a South-South Cooperation Agreement, in order to strengthen relations between their countries. The government of the Netherlands, appreciating the relevance of this Agreement, has formulated a Draft Funding Program to promote its implementation. This project was approved in May 2005 in The Hague by the Joint SDA Committee. It then appeared necessary to create a new structure to take over from the CBDD: the Center for Partnership and Expertise for Sustainable Development (CePED).

Thus, the CePED was created by Decree No. 2006-546 of October 11, 2006 approving the statutes of the CePED. This creation is the mark of the will of the Government of Benin to create a Center of Excellence at the service of sustainable economic and social promotion, by capitalizing on all the initiatives and all the achievements in the field of sustainable development. The CePED actually started its activities on February 28, 2008. With all its expertise, the CePED is now a reference center for supporting actors in the sustainable implementation of development policies.