This Monday, February 26, 2024 in Ouagadougou, the 7th ordinary session of the regional steering committee of the SWEDD project began.
The coordinators of the countries participating in the women's empowerment and demographic dividends in the Sahel project met in advance to prepare the committee meeting scheduled for Thursday in Burkina Faso.
It is a question for the 12 SWEDD countries to elect their President and Vice-President for one year and above all to answer the critical questions brought to their attention.
The subject of keeping girls in school will be on the agenda of this Burkinabè meeting.
"What interests us today is the question of keeping girls in school and minimizing school dropouts. So there is a study that has been conducted and which still shows a certain limit and "We would therefore like the steering committee to make a strong recommendation towards all ministries of national education and families, communities in their country", declared Nafissatou Diop, Regional Director of the SWEDD project.
The SWEDD regional steering committee must therefore find firm measures that will resolve this problem. Burkina Faso successfully implemented the first phase of the Project to strengthen the academic skills of more than 430,000 young girls.
"For these, under component 1 relating to the schooling of girls, I would like to mention that more than 60,000 school kits have been acquired and made available to the ministry in charge of national education, that nearly 40,000 girls vulnerable people benefited from specific support, school scholarships, accommodation support and subsidies for the school canteen", detailed Jean Robert Kargougou, Minister of Health of Burkina.
The objective of this meeting is to take stock of the implementation of SWEDD in 2023 as well as to validate the 2024 work plan. This meeting will be an opportunity to discuss the obstacles encountered in the implementation of the project.
A report by Joël Kouam, Africanews correspondent in Ouagadougou.
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