H.E. Madam Damtien L. Tchintchibidja, Vice-President of the ECOWAS Commission, led the official launch of the Women's Empowerment and Demographic Dividend in Sub-Saharan Africa Plus (SWEDD+) project on December 16, 2024, in Abuja, Nigeria.
During her address at the event, Madam Tchintchibidja emphasized the significance of empowering women and girls in West Africa. "Women and girls are the backbone of our societies, and for that reason their empowerment is crucial to achieving sustainable development, economic growth, and social progress," she stated.
The ceremony also featured speeches from several notable figures including Prof. Fatou Sow SARR, ECOWAS Commissioner for Human Development and Social Affairs; Madame Fatima HARAM ACYL from Chad; Dr. Sennen HOUNTON from UNFPA-BRAOC; Ms. Eleonora CAVAGNERO from the World Bank; Dr. Melchior Athanase J.C. AÏSSI from WAHO; and representatives from Nigeria, Togo, and Senegal's health ministries.
Initiated in November 2015 with backing from organizations like the World Bank and UNFPA, SWEDD+ aims to accelerate demographic transition by empowering women and reducing gender inequalities across nine West and Central African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Chad. It has since expanded to include six additional countries: Republic of Congo, Gambia, Senegal, Burkina Faso again listed here likely as an error or redundancy due to its prior mention), Togo and Chad along with two regional institutions: ECOWAS and ECCAS.
A technical meeting will accompany this launch to evaluate project implementation status across five beneficiary countries at a regional level. The agenda includes reviewing SWEDD 2's achievements and challenges as well as assessing SWEDD+'s work plans for 2024-2025.
The SWEDD+ initiative focuses on enhancing life skills related to sexual health for adolescent girls while promoting education retention among them through economic opportunities aimed at reducing gender-based violence by addressing its root causes.
Three core components guide activities within this framework: transformative gender interventions under Component 1; strengthening regional capacity concerning SRMNIN products under Component 2; fostering policy commitment via Component 3.
Since its inception in 2015 SWEDD has significantly impacted communities helping nearly one million girls remain enrolled through scholarships meals transportation alongside creating economic avenues benefiting over150000 young women while establishing thousands safe spaces clubs encouraging male involvement domestic duties breaking harmful norms providing access modern family planning contraceptive users training midwives quality assurance reproductive services
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