Voice, decision-making and leadership are vital factors for the empowerment of women. These factors ensure that women can express their preferences, demands, views and interests, and that they can gain access to decision-making positions.
Voix EssentiELLES aims to strengthen women and girls, in all of their diversity, by meaningfully engaging them in decision-making processes and spaces that influence health policies and programs.
Implemented by the non-profit strategic communications and advocacy organization Speak Up Africa, in partnership with the CHANEL Foundation, Voix EssentiELLES aims to support women's and girls' organizations working at community level. Financial support on the one hand, via a dedicated Fund, and technical support on the other, delivered through the University of ExcELLEnce, in the form of a customized capacity-building and leadership development program.
Women contribute substantially to the economy of the African continent. Whether they are farmers or entrepreneurs, these women are more economically active than women in any other region of the world. However, throughout the ages, these same women have been systematically excluded from decision-making spaces and programmes that affect their health and well-being.
When women and girls are empowered and supported to play a role in the decision-making process, then truly effective health policies and programs that consider gender differences and cultural sensitivities , can be developed and implemented, informed by the lived experience of women and girls.
More than 640 million women worldwide aged 15 and over have experienced physical and/or sexual violence at the hands of their intimate partner (≈ 26% of women worldwide).
While more and more women are reaching political office worldwide, they account for just 27.2% of members of national parliaments, a long way from parity.
Only six countries in the world have 50% or more women in parliament (lower or single house). Only one African country is among them.
It’s estimated that – based on current progress – women will not achieve pay or leadership equity with men for at least another 135.6 years.
At the current rate, it could take 107 years for the gender gap to close in sub-Saharan Africa.
Although more women than men are graduating from higher education, they remainvastly under-represented in leadership positions, with only 29.5% of female senior executives graduating.
Less than 1% of global Development Assistance Committee aid for gender equality and women’s empowerment goes to women’s rights organizations.
Voix EssentiELLES aims to strengthen women and girls, in all of their diversity meaningful engagement in decision-making processes and spaces that influence health policies and programs.
To enable the participation of women and girls’ community-based / grassroot organizations, networks and leaders in decision-making platforms at different levels relevant for their health outcomes.
To strengthen their capacities and skills to influence policies, laws and programs that affect their health and well-being.
Historically, women and girls have been widely excluded from decision-making spaces and programs that affect their health and well-being. This is especially so in francophone Western and Central Africa, which are regions characterized by persistent social, economic and political gender inequalities.
The first phase of the 3-year Voix EssentiELLES project began in 2021 and was implemented by Speak Up Africa to support over 30 women's and girls' organizations in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal.
The second phase of the project, launched in 2025 and scheduled for completion in 2027, has begun with the addition of 2 new countries, Benin and Togo. This brings the number of organizations supported by Voix EssentiELLES to 60, and the number of national networks to 5.
Voix Essentielles is an initiative implemented by Speak Up Africa thanks to the technical and financial support of the CHANEL Foundation.
Headquartered in Dakar, Senegal, Speak Up Africa is a policy and advocacy action tank dedicated to catalyzing leadership, enabling policy change, and increasing awareness for sustainable development in Africa. With ensuring health and well-being of all at its core, Speak Up Africa supports SDGs 1 to 6 in transforming societies throughout Africa and making sure every man, woman, and child is empowered to live a long and healthy life.
Since 2011, Fondation CHANEL supports projects on all continents with financial, human and technical means, giving priority to stable countries. It commits to long term partnerships that promote scaling up, social innovation, and quality interventions. By opening new ways of empowering women and of conceiving gender equality, it adapts its solutions individually and promotes personalized support.
