The NEPAD Spanish Fund for African Women’s Empowerment held its’ 7th Steering Committee Meeting at the NEPAD Agency Offices in Johannesburg, South Africa on the 5th April 2013.

Among those attending this Annual Meeting was, the Ambassador of Spain to South Africa, Mr Juan Sell who was interviewed on the impact of the Spanish Government support to the Gender Programme

Mr Sell stated that the contribution of Spain to the Fund is very significant in that Twenty million Euro has been provided since 2007 in order to finance Gender empowering projects. This means that Spain has funded almost 80 projects in 30 countries all over Africa aimed at African women economic empowerment, as well as civil society and institutional strengthening.

These Spanish funded projects will help Africa to tap in one of its most important resources and principal development vectors: African women.

Moreover, rural development is a key priority of the development policy of Spain. The Spanish Government always works with a gender mainstream approach in both our bilateral and multilateral cooperation programmes. This is the case of the support provided to ECOWAS Agriculture Policy in the implementation of CAADP in Western Africa.

“Sustainability is one of the main criteria considered in the selection of the projects funded. The empowerment of women is one of the core values of the recently approved IV Spanish Director Plan, the key document for the implementation of the cooperation for development policy of Spain for the next few years, “said Ambassador Sell.

Besides, Spain supports the institutional strengthening of NEPAD and its gender unit and finances gender policy units in ECOWAS as well as COMESA through the BIAWE initiative. Those measures will contribute to the support of African women in the long term. The efficiency and the great impact of the Fund in African women lives will also surely attract the support of African institutions and new foreign donors.