Africa’s Agenda 2063 envisages the effective participation of women in public and private life, through a full and fair share of economic, social, cultural and political opportunities and decision making. The NEPAD Spanish Fund is contributing to this goal by supporting development projects that are addressing gender concerns in Africa in areas such as business skills, vocational training, agriculture, nutrition, ICT, microfinance, income generation, Gender based violence, as well as promotion of women’s rights and participation in leadership positions, among others.
The NEPAD/Spanish Fund for African Women’s Empowerment is a partnership between the NEPAD Agency and the Spanish Government through the Spanish Agency for International Development and Cooperation (AECID). It has benefited from a 20 million Euros contribution from the Government of Spain.
79 projects in 38 countries in Africa have been supported since its inception in 2007 . Over 1.2 million women have directly benefited from the fund.
The overall long-term 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 acceleration of the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, in particular MDG3 and the subsequent Sustainable Development Goals, specifically SDG5.
The NEPAD/Spanish Fund for African Women’s Empowerment is a partnership between the NEPAD Agency and the Spanish Government through the Spanish Agency for International Development and Cooperation (AECID). It has benefited from a 20 million Euros contribution from the Government of Spain.
The overall long-term 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 acceleration of the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, in particular MDG3 and the subsequent Sustainable Development Goals, specifically SDG5.
Furthermore, the work of the Fund is aligned to the priorities of the African Union Gender Policy, the Africa Women Decade (2010-2020) as well as with other international and regional policies and frameworks, to ensure sustainability of the programme and projects and the achievement of Agenda 2063.
The specific objective of the NEPAD/Spanish Fund is to support actions on gender equality and women’s empowerment, specifically linked to improving women’s economic, political and social empowerment and full use of their rights. The Fund provides financial and technical support to women’s grassroots organisations, civil society organisations government institutions and Regional Economic Communities.
Over 1.2 million women benefited directly from the Fund in areas such as business skills and vocational training, agriculture, nutrition and value chain, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), development of women ‘s SMEs, microfinance, income generation, promotion of women’s right, advocacy for promoting women’s participation and leadership in decision making , Gender-Based Violence (GBV), gender mainstreaming and employment among others.
The Fund has contributed to women’s economic empowerment through skills transfer, access to finance, the set-up of businesses and job creation. At institutional level, the capacities of government institutions and civil society organizations including grassroots women’s organisations have been strengthened. This has led to an increased representation and effective participation of women in decision making processes in political parties, local governments, the private sector and civil society organisations and sound implementation of their National Plans for eradication and prevention of Gender Based Violence in some of the most affected countries.
In addition, 2 million Euros have 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 Africa (ECOWAS) regions.