Management of Grassroots Community Organizations:
To enable organizations to operate in compliance with their country’s legal framework, which is essential for them to be recognized as credible partners by government authorities and donors.
The University of ExcELLEnce is Speak Up Africa’s solution of choice for empowering girls and women in French-speaking Africa. It is structured around two complementary components—capacity building and leadership—that equip community-based organizations led by women and girls to engage in effective advocacy and improve health policies in their communities.
A training program designed to equip women's and girls' organizations with the skills needed for organizational and financial management, advocacy, and communication.
A mentoring and networking platform to strengthen the leadership of women and girls in health decision-making forums.
The Capacity-Building Program is structured around six modules, designed to address the specific needs of community-based organizations for women and girls at each stage of their development.
To enable organizations to operate in compliance with their country’s legal framework, which is essential for them to be recognized as credible partners by government authorities and donors.
To provide organizations with the tools to turn their on-the-ground observations into concrete proposals capable of influencing their country’s health policies.
Enable organizations to showcase their impact—particularly through digital tools—to gain credibility and support.
Structure the organizations’ activities for the long term and demonstrate, with supporting data, the results achieved.
Reduce dependence on a single donor by diversifying and ensuring the long-term sustainability of organizations' funding sources.
Build trust among financial partners by demonstrating rigorous and transparent management of the funds received.
Our experience has shown that creating a learning framework based on collective intelligence is a key to success for this type of initiative. Our aim is to build a cohort of learners who develop new skills together and support each other throughout the programme.
The Leadership component encompasses all initiatives that prepare women and girls to have a lasting impact in health-related decision-making forums.
It consists of in-person and online workshops led by experts that cover essential topics: financial inclusion, addressing the needs of vulnerable people, media engagement, and key skills such as coping with difficult situations, public speaking, and building self-confidence.
It is complemented by a mentoring program that provides individualized support to women leaders to strengthen their confidence and ability to influence, as well as by the participation of Voix EssentiELLES in international forums, which gives their experiences and demands a broader reach beyond their own countries.
Finally, this initiative brings together the organizations supported by Voix EssentiELLES, enabling them to carry out larger-scale advocacy efforts as a collective.
The first cohort of the University of Excellence mentoring program brought together three EssentiELLES Voices from Burkina Faso, already members of national and local decision-making bodies: the National Coordination Committee (CCM), the Parliament and the Town Hall.
This program provided these leaders with tailored support to strengthen their presence, their ability to influence, and their impact as women actively engaged in public policy.
Mentee
Executive Director of FEMIN-IN
Mentee
President of the Association of Widows and Orphans Living in Bittou
Mentee
Secretary General of the Association for the Support of Vulnerable Children and Women
The second cohort, launched in 2025, expands the program to the six countries participating in Voix EssentiELLES, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The mentees receive personalized support to deepen their strategic skills, strengthen their collective leadership, and establish themselves as key agents of change within their communities and institutions.
Mentor
President of the Observatory for Monitoring Economic Development Indicators in Africa (OSIDEA)
Mentor
Member of the National Assembly of Togo (Zio constituency)
Mentor
Acting Coordinator of the SRPS (Resilient and Sustainable Health System) Project, Ministry of Health of Benin
Mentor
Full Professor at CAMES Universities, Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Abidjan (Félix Houphouët-Boigny University)
Mentor
CEO of Abafa-Innovation
Mentee
Coordinator of the UCAD branch of the Association for Keeping Girls in School (AMFE), law student
Mentee
The Autonomous Girls and Women's Group
Mentee
Coordinator of the NGO Femme de Demain (FDD)
Mentee
Women and Power Association
Mentee
Cercle d'Actions pour le Développement et l'Epanouissement de la Femme et de l'Enfant (Action Circle for the Development and Fulfillment of Women and Children)
Mentee
President of GNOUWIETA
Mentee
Project Coordinator for the NGO Conscience et Vie (COVIE)
Mentee
Program Assistant for the Youth Network for the Promotion of the Elimination of FGM and Child Marriage (RJPA-MGF-ME)
Mentee
President of the "No Pregnancy in Schools" Association
Mentee
President of the Bétouré Women's Association
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