Francophone African Women Commit to Strengthening Movements & Collaborations Across Boarders
Press Release
For Immediate Release
20th May 2015, Dakar, Senegal– More than 40 women’s rights organizations from 20 French-speaking African countries concluded a powerful three-day convening in Dakar, Senegal from May 18th -20th, 2015.
The meeting, organized by Urgent Action Fund-Africa (UAF-Africa), in partnership with Foundation for a Just Society (FJS), American Jewish World Service (AJWS), Global Fund for Women (GFW) African Women Development Fund (AWDF), New Field Foundation & Global Human Rights Fund was the first-ever regional convening aimed at strengthening women’s organizations through capacity development on resource mobilisation, strategic communications & advocacy, movement building and cross-border collaborations & solidarity.
Over the course of the convening, participants attended a series of high impact and interactive workshops. These sessions were an opportunity for the attending participants to learn from each other and critically analyse the different operating landscapes of their work. Workshops presented an opportunity to the participants to debate, discuss, and deepen dialogue on the regional and specific threats, challenges and opportunities including strategies in developing collective advocacy messages to galvanize resources for Francophone West & Central African women’s movement.
“This convening was very interesting and diverse in terms of its thematic areas, which are essential and critical for organizations in Francophone Africa,“ says Dr. Makale Traore, a participant from Guinea.
African Women Development Fund’s Francophone Programme Officer, Rissi Assani-Alabi commented that “the three-day convening was inspiring, engaging and provided a safe platform to understand the issues of Francophone women’s rights organizing.”
The outcomes of the convening reaffirmed the need for an integrated agenda in the interventions of supporting women leaders operating in Francophone Africa. The convening also reaffirmed our commitment to ensure that the women’s political agendas for Francophone Africa are incorporated in public policies at the national, regional and international levels.
“This gathering of women’s rights organizations from Francophone Africa is timely because it recognizes the potential of women’s groups but also the additional work necessary to elevate the movement in Francophone Africa, so we can meet the urgent challenge of this decade. We don’t have enough opportunities to meet across borders, and this type of networking is so critical for collective responses to regional issues,” says Muadi Mukenge, Program Director for Sub-Saharan Africa at Global Fund for Women.
For more information, contact:
Tooni Akanni
Communications & Knowledge Management Program Officer, UAF-Africa
tooni@urgentactionfund-africa.or.ke
+2347051767625