" [1]Saturday 9 April 2011
Venue: Safari Complex
Time: 12: 30 PM
Windhoek, Namibia
Midrand, South Africa. 7 April 2011- Namibia will host the launch of the Second call of proposals for of the NEPAD/Spanish Fund for African Women’s Empowerment, on Saturday the 9th April 2011, during the ‘’VI Spain-Africa Women for a Better World International’’ Meeting’’ due to take place from the 9th to 10th April 2011.
The goal of the NEPAD/Spanish Fund is to promote gender equality and increase the capacities and autonomy of African women in order to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) in particular the MDG3.
Established in 2007 between the government of Spain and the then NEPAD Secretariat, the Fund’s aim is to empower women in sub-Saharan African.
During its first phase in 2008, 46 projects were financed from 23 countries. A total amount of 6.285 million Euros was disbursed to the approved projects. Three regions were beneficiaries to this in sub-Saharan African. These included Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone Africa. Out of 46 projects, 31 have ended and the remaining projects are ongoing.
In addition, 2 million Euros has been earmarked for establishing Business Incubators for Women (BIAWE) projects to be implemented by the Common Market of East Africa (COMESA) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regions.
8,4million Euros will be disbursed during the second phase of the Fund over a period of 3 years with a new focus in three strategic sectors which are: women’s economic empowerment; strengthening civil society and institutional strengthening, in order to increase the impact and cost effectiveness of the Fund in supporting interventions aimed at promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in Africa.
Applicant organizations eligible to receive grants from the NEPAD/Spanish Fund include, but not limited to the following institutions:
African Government bodies: these include, but are not limited to, Ministries of Gender Equality and Women Affairs, regional inter-governmental agencies, human rights and electoral commissions, local governments, women’s parliamentary caucuses and others Government actors.
African Non - Governmental Organizations (NGOs).
Local Associations and networks of women entrepreneurs.
Women Community - Based Organization (CBOs) and community cooperatives.
African research institutions.
Women’s groups/networks in Africa.
African Women’s Funds and Foundations of women
The NEPAD/Spanish Fund is aligned with AU/NPCA priority programs such as the AU Fund for African Women and eight out of the ten themes of the African Women Decade.
For more information about the NEPAD/Spanish Fund, please visit www.nepad.org/crosscuttingissues/gender [2]
Journalists are hereby invited to attend and participate in this event.
For more information please contact:
Gilles Eric FOADEY, Public Communications Manager, NEPAD Agency
Mobile: + 27 83 555 9696 Email: erickf@nepad.org [3]
