Women's Political Empowerment and Leadership in West and Central Africa

The aim of the project is to help achieve greater equality between women and men as political leaders and agents of change in West and Central Africa. In support of this goal the project seeks to increase women’s full and effective political participation by: (1) promoting legislative reforms that ensure women’s fair access to political life; (2) strengthening the skills of women to run successful electoral campaigns; and (3) training newly elected women leaders to be effective legislators and to champion issues of gender equality. The project is supporting more than 250 000 women political actors as well as 500 women’s civil society organizations across the Central African Republic (CAR) Guinea Liberia and Nigeria.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) increased effective participation of women as political leaders at the local national and regional levels; and (2) improved legislative practices and frameworks for the promotion of gender balance in politics.