Women’s Voice and Leadership – Response to Coronavirus (COVID-19) – Senegal

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the project supports Senegalese women’s rights organizations to allow them to better respond to the needs of women and girls, including those most marginalized, who are at risk of being disproportionally impacted by this crisis, from a health, social, and economic perspective. Project activities include: (1) conducting an impact and follow-up study on the risk reduction measures of COVID-19 on gender-based violence and the agency of women and girls; (2) providing prevention and psychosocial care for victims of gender-based violence and for women healthcare workers during the crisis; (3) conducting a media campaign on the unequal impacts of COVID-19 on women and girls; (4) raising awareness campaign on hygiene and the specific needs of women and girls, and distribution of hygiene kits responding to their needs; and (5) providing financial support to women’s economic associations that are the most vulnerable to the crisis.

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 their activities, building their 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 significant, globally recognized gap in funding and support to women’s rights organizations and movements around the world. This project is implemented by the Centre d’étude et de coopération internationale (CECI). It directly supports 20 women’s rights organizations at the local level, and 5 networks representing more than 20 organizations each. In addition, the project enables women’s organisations to adopt innovative management practices that contribute to the sustainability of their programmes, ensure better quality of services offered, and carry out networking, advocacy and social monitoring activities through innovative approaches that indirectly benefit more than 100,000 people in the country.