WB strengthens economic empowerment for millions of girls, women across East and Southern Africa
Washington, United States (PANA) - Millions of girls and young women’s across Eastern and Southern Africa will gain greater access to education and economic empowerment opportunities thanks to the newly approved East Africa Girls' Empowerment and Resilience programme (EAGER).
This new programme, approved on 28 September, 2023 and supported by $832 million in International Development Association (IDA) financing, will boost girls' and women's education and earnings while strengthening institutional capacity for the implementation of gender equality policies.
The World Bank’s IDA, established in 1960, helps the world’s poorest countries by providing grants and low to zero-interest loans for projects and programmes that boost economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve poor people’s lives.
EAGER brings together countries facing similar challenges hindering girls’ and women’s empowerment and will be deployed in phases. Madagascar and Mozambique are the first two countries to participate in the initiative, with the African Union (AU) serving as the regional institution supporting the programme.
Future phases are expected to include Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
"EAGER is a ground-breaking initiative that will help to achieve impact at scale by directly reaching millions of girls, women, and stakeholders. It also seeks to create the institutional conditions necessary to empower even more girls and women," said Boutheina Guermazi, the World Bank’s Director for Regional Integration, Africa, and the Middle East.
In its first phase, the EAGER programme will directly support over two million girls to stay in or return to school and enable 160,000 women to increase their productivity in the labour market in Mozambique and Madagascar.
It will also reach more than six million agents of change, including traditional leaders, parents, and boys, through behavioural change campaigns designed to shift gender norms in the two countries. It will enhance the capacity of 26,000 local administrators, community leaders, and service providers to effectively implement gender-equality reforms.
In Eastern and Southern Africa, over 40 million girls do not attend school, and a staggering 55 million girls and young women are married before the age of 18.
This lack of access to resources and decision-making power during adolescence often leads to a trajectory of low productivity, leaving them excluded from the labour market or relegated to low-quality jobs in adulthood, thus contributing to a significant gender gap in job earnings.
"A human-centred engagement is needed to address the deep-rooted causes of women's disempowerment. EAGER is a multi-sectoral effort encompassing education, health, jobs, and social protection, recognizing the strong interrelation of these dimensions in women's empowerment,” said Sara Troiano, the Task Team Leader on EAGER, emphasising the need for a holistic approach.
-0- PANA AR/MA 11Oct2023
