Pauline Nana
Association Soutien aux Enfants et Femmes Vulnérables
Headlines
World Menstrual Hygiene Day: Women Speak Out for Their Health and Dignity.
A voice, decision-making, and leadership are essential drivers of women’s empowerment: the ability to express one’s preferences, requests, and viewpoints, and to have access to the forums where decisions that affect one’s health and well-being are made.
Voix EssentiELLES strengthens the engagement of community-based organizations of women and girls in decision-making forums related to health and human rights in French-speaking West and Central Africa.
The initiative draws on a dedicated fund for direct financial support and on the University of ExcELLEnce for technical assistance in the form of capacity building and leadership development.
Led by Speak Up Africa, a nonprofit organization focused on strategic communication and advocacy based in Dakar, Voix EssentiELLES is implemented in partnership with the Global Fund and the CHANEL Foundation.
Women make a substantial contribution to the African continent’s economy. Whether as farmers or entrepreneurs, they are more economically active than women in any other region of the world. Yet, over the centuries, they have been gradually excluded from decision-making forums and programs that affect their health and well-being.
Only when women and girls are empowered and supported to participate fully in decision-making processes can effective, equitable health policies that are grounded in their realities be developed. It is essential that health policies be designed based on the experiences of women and girls; otherwise, they will not be able to reach their full potential.
Voix EssentiELLES operates on three complementary levels—direct funding, capacity building, and individual mentoring—to bridge the gap between women’s actual contribution to the continent’s economic and social life and their influence in the forums where policies affecting their health are decided.
The Findings
1 in 3 women
in West and Central Africa experience gender-based violence (source: UN Women)
Our response
amplify the voices and needs of women who are all too often silenced.
The Findings
27,3 %
Only a small number of parliamentary seats in sub-Saharan Africa are held by women, a figure that drops even further at the local and community decision-making levels
Our response
increase women's participation in decision-making bodies at all levels.
The Findings
107 years
At the current rate, it will take 107 years for the gender gaps to close in sub-Saharan Africa.
Our response
empower women and their organizations on pressing issues to accelerate this progress.
The Findings
29,5 %
the percentage of women with higher education degrees who actually attain senior management positions.
Our response
individual coaching to strengthen women's leadership skills and ability to influence others.
The Findings
< 1 %
of global aid dedicated to gender equality goes directly to women's rights organizations
Our response
Direct support for community-based organizations for women and girls since 2021, with grants of up to $18,000 per organization.
Launched in 2021 on the sidelines of the Generation Equality Forum, the first phase of Voix EssentiELLES was implemented by Speak Up Africa to support more than 30 women’s and girls’ organizations in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal.
The second phase, launched in 2025 and scheduled to run through 2027, expanded the initiative to Benin, Togo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, bringing the number of supported organizations to 76, the number of countries where the initiative operates to 6, and the number of national networks to 6.
Click on the map to learn more about the countries where the program is implemented.
The Voix EssentiELLES model, which has been in use since 2021, can be adapted to specific themes or geographic areas where needs are most urgent. Each extension is based on the same principle: a precise assessment grounded in the realities of each country.
That is the choice Speak Up Africa made in 2025 when it launched, with support from the Global Fund, an expansion dedicated to the fight against malaria. The reality is that women and girls are on the front lines of prevention and care, yet remain largely absent from the forums where priorities and budgets for combating the disease are decided. This expansion applies the Voix EssentiELLES model—a catalytic fund (grants of up to $18,000), capacity building, and strategic mentoring—to support 16 community-based organizations in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Based in Dakar, Senegal, Speak Up Africa is a nonprofit strategic communications and advocacy organization dedicated to fostering African leadership and raising awareness about sustainable development. Public health is at the heart of its work, which supports the achievement of SDGs 1 through 6.
An international partnership that mobilizes and invests more than $4 billion annually to support programs in more than 100 countries aimed at combating AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, led by local experts.
Since 2011, the CHANEL Foundation has provided financial, technical, and human resources support to projects around the world, with a focus on fragile countries. It is committed to long-term partnerships aimed at scaling up initiatives and fostering social innovation, and tailors its solutions on a case-by-case basis.