Women Empowerment Gets a New Opportunity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Kenyan farmer displays maize ears damaged by stem borersThirty-one projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, collectively worth $10,829,478, will now be funded by NEPAD Spanish Fund for African Women Empowerment. The program will allow for increased development and empowerment of women.

The projects consist of health, economic development, and education, and allow social, political, and economic growth for women while also creating social organizations and institutions.

NEPAD Agency’s Chief Executive Officer said, “NEPAD and the Government of the Kingdom of Spain share a common goal of advancing gender equality and gender equity. The implementation of the NEPAD Spanish Fund represents one of the key steps to achieve this goal.”

The fund was created in 2007, and has released funds for projects once before. Forty-six projects were funded while, 38 have been finished fruitfully and eight are near completion. Such projects were for Incubators for African Women Entrepreneurs, Common Market for East Africa and Southern Africa (COMESA), and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

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Written by Amanda Bragg