Togo is a very small country on the western coast of Africa. From the border with Benin to the border with Ghana, it takes just under 1 hour by car to cross the country on the coast. From the seashore, it stretches 800km north where it borders with Burkina Faso. There are about 5 million people living in the country, with close to half under 15 years old.
Togo is divided into 5 administrative regions; from south to north they are Maritime, Plateau, Central, Kara and Savanes. Each region is divided into prefectures; for example, Togo’s capital city, Lomé, is in the Prefecture of Golf in the Maritime Region. Within each prefecture, there are cantons and villages within the canton that are headed by traditional chiefs, a system of leadership based on descendency that has been observed for several hundred years. Togo’s current administrative system respects both the modern decentralised governance endorsed by the 1992 constitution and the traditional system that is still an important part of the everyday life of Togolese people.
There are a number of ethnic groups in Togo; the most dominant are Ewe in the south and Kabye in the north. Their languages of the same name, and other local languages, are commonly used in daily. Nevertheless, the official language of Togo is French; it is the language of instruction in school and dominates print and broadcast media. Some information is distributed in local languages, particularly through radio programming.
Togo is largely rural; however, like other countries in Africa, urbanisation has taken place in recent years, making Lomé, along with other regional capital cities, the most densely populated parts of the country. Even then, more than 65% of the population still make their living from subsistence farming [UNICEF Togo 2001] and it is this sector which represents close to half of Togo’s GNP. Coffee, cocoa and cotton are grown primarily for export, but the downfall of international prices for these products has led to a decline in the share of profits in recent years (these crops only represents about 10% of the earnings from agriculture). Togo is rich in minerals (phosphate is the largest export) and other natural resources, but they have not been fully exploited. The informal economy also plays an important role in Togo’s economy; the International Labor Organization estimates that the contribution of the informal sector could be as high as 20% of GNP [UNICEF Togo 2001]. A great number of women participate in the informal economy as hairdressers, bakers, market vendors, tailors, domestic workers and in other occupations.