Women's Voice and Leadership - Mali

This project is part of Canada’s Women’s Voice and Leadership Program which supports local and regional women’s organizations and networks that are working to promote women’s rights and advance women’s empowerment and gender equality in developing countries. This is done by supporting activities building institutional capacity and promoting network and alliance-building as women’s rights and feminist organizations are critical agents of change. The Program also responds to the globally recognized significant gap in funding and support to women’s rights organizations and movements around the world. This project is being implemented by a consortium formed of the Centre for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI) and the Société de coopération pour le développement international (SOCODEVI). The project supports an estimated 19 local women’s right organizations (WRO) and 6 networks which regroup 3 200 members to eventually reach up to 1.4 million Malians country-wide. Project activities include: (1) providing multi-year and quick response funding to the 19 WROs; and (2) supporting capacity building of WROs.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) increased efficiency in implementing local women’s rights organizations programmes and activities through an innovative approach that contributes to advance gender equality; (2) increased efficiency of advocacy of networks that bring together organizations that defend women's rights in order to generate impacts on policies and legal and social institutions; and (3) institutional strengthening in an innovative manner of local women’s rights organizations in Mali especially those representing vulnerable and marginalized women and girls.