PRESS RELEASE

Dakar, 16 June 2025 – Today on the Day of the African Child, commemorated on 16 June, member countries of the sub-Saharan Africa Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend Plus Project (SWEDD+) launch the regional “Together For Her” campaign, a call to action for governments, communities and partners to come together to promote the rights, health, and empowerment of women and adolescent girls.

Mrs Fatou Kinteh, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Welfare in The Gambia, one of the new SWEDD+ countries said: “The Together For Her campaign could not be more timely. Let us work together until every girl in every community has an opportunity to learn, lead and live with dignity.

Dr Bushra Alam, Senior Health Specialist at the World Bank said: “Together For Her is more than a message, it is a movement. A movement that mobilises communities, amplifies youth voices, and challenges harmful gender norms. It calls on each of us to do more: to listen to girls, to invest in their dreams, and to stand with them in the pursuit of lasting, systemic change. Because the future of Africa depends on what we do today for her.”

Dr. Sennen Hounton, UNFPA Regional Director for West and Central Africa, emphasised that SWEDD+ aims to empower adolescent girls and women, with the ambitious goal of reaching 2.5 million adolescent girls directly.

Faced with persistent challenges such as child marriage, school dropout, and gender inequality, SWEDD+ countries are reaffirming their commitment to fostering more equitable social norms. In Niger, for example, 76% of young women aged 20 to 24 were married before the age of 18. In Chad, 78% of girls of secondary school age are not enrolled in school. In Mauritania, over half of young women are neither in school, in training, nor employed.

The SWEDD+ initiative combats child marriage, adolescent pregnancy, female genital mutilation (FGM), and barriers to education and reproductive healthcare. Through an intersectoral approach focused on health, education, and economic empowerment, the initiative seeks to shift harmful gender and social norms.

A regional strategy, local action

Led by participating countries and supported by the World Bank, with technical assistance from UNFPA, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), SWEDD+ is rolling out a regional Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) strategy.

This strategy aims to tackle the most pressing challenges facing adolescent girls and women through a series of key messages, delivered across multiple project interventions—including the launch of the “Together For Her” campaign.

A movement led by countries

“Together For Her” will be launched simultaneously in all SWEDD+ member states: The Gambia, Senegal, Togo, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Mauritania.

As a central pillar of the strategy, the campaign mobilises communities, youth, religious and traditional leaders, influencers, decision-makers and the media around a shared goal: building a safer, fairer and more inclusive future for adolescent girls and women across the region. It provides countries with a shared set of messages on girls’ education, reproductive health, economic empowerment and financial inclusion, tailored to enhance and align with national strategies.

The campaign builds on SWEDD+ safe spaces, where girls can speak freely, access information, and build decision-making skills. It also includes husband and future husband clubs that encourage men to take an active role in advancing gender equality. These spaces are designed to drive community-level engagement by emphasising the critical role men and local leaders play in reducing gender inequalities. By involving them directly, the campaign aims to foster lasting change within families and communities.

Building on progress

This campaign follows the 2021 “Stronger Together” campaign, launched under the original SWEDD project in response to the COVID-19 crisis. That campaign reached more than 1.5 million people, helping mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic on women and girls.

SWEDD’s impact over the past decade underscores what is possible through strong, sustained commitment to adolescent girls, their families, and communities. Between 2015 and 2025, with SWEDD’s support:

• More than 1.16 million girls stayed in secondary school through school-based programs providing transport, accommodation, meals, school supplies and cash transfers.
• Over 255,000 young women were trained in life skills and future-oriented vocational skills.
• Over 95% of adolescent girls and women attending safe spaces now understand the risks of child marriage and adolescent pregnancy, and the benefits of birth spacing-up from just 32%.
• More than 8,000 safe spaces were created, reaching millions of girls, women, boys and men with services promoting equality and access to healthcare.
• Over 1.5 million girls and women gained access to modern contraceptive services, empowering them to make informed decisions about their health and future.
• Nearly 20,000 community and religious leaders were engaged in promoting positive gender norms.

Together For Her: A shared commitment

The challenges are immense, and so the response must be collective. Governments, communities, technical and financial partners, civil society, young people, men and women: we all have a role to play. The “Together For Her” campaign reflects our shared ambition to build a future in which every girl and woman can raise her voice, realise her potential and exercise her full rights. Only together, united in action, can we create lasting social change—and new opportunities for future generations.

ENDS

About SWEDD+
SWEDD+ is an innovative initiative working across Central and West Africa to empower women and adolescent girls and improve access to quality reproductive, maternal, and child health services. It builds on the original Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend Project (SWEDD), launched in 2015 following a call by Sahelian Heads of State, with support from partners to accelerate demographic transition, leverage the demographic dividend, and reduce gender inequality. That project spanned 12 countries, including Niger, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Cameroon and Benin.

SWEDD+ (Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend in Sub-Saharan Africa Plus) is a scaled-up and expanded phase of the SWEDD programme. It is currently being implemented in The Gambia, Senegal, Togo, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Mauritania, with a total funding envelope of US$460 million. It is financed by the World Bank, with technical assistance from UNFPA, ECOWAS and ECCAS.

www.sweddafrica.org

Media Contacts:
Emmanuelle Landais Lopez, Media and Communication Specialist, SWEDD+ at UNFPA WCARO: [email protected]

Alejandra Linares-Rivas, SWEDD Programme, World Bank: [email protected]