Saly Portudal, Senegal, September 19, 2025 Lawyers, parliamentarians, policymakers, and experts from SWEDD countries (Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Mauritania, Senegal, and Togo ) will gather in Saly from September 22 to 26 for a regional training workshop dedicated to combating gender-based violence (GBV).
Worldwide, one in three women experiences physical or sexual violence. In West and Central Africa, child marriage, female genital mutilation, and other harmful practices continue to affect millions of girls. These practices jeopardize their health, education, and future, and slow down the development of society as a whole if not effectively addressed.
Many countries already have laws or decrees in place to protect women and girls, but these often remain incomplete, poorly enforced, insufficiently binding, or little known to the public. This workshop will provide an opportunity to identify concrete solutions to turn existing legal frameworks into real levers of protection and justice.
The Role of SWEDD+
The SWEDD+ Project (Sub Saharan Africa Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend), funded by the World Bank and implemented with technical support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the West African Health Organisation (WAHO) and the Department of Human Development and Social Affairs (DHDSA) of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will support countries in strengthening their laws and policies, protecting survivors and promoting gender equality.
Through this workshop, national legal teams will share experiences, identify legal gaps, and develop common tools for better enforcement of rights. The training-of-trainers approach will be central: participants will in turn serve as multipliers in their countries, able to disseminate acquired knowledge and build local capacities.
A Meeting to Accelerate Change
During the workshop, participants will review existing laws and decrees, and share best practices to strengthen legal protection for women and girls. Discussions will focus in particular on ending child marriage and female genital mutilation; preventing and addressing femicide; tackling technology-facilitated violence (cyber-harassment, non-consensual image sharing); and creating survivor-centered legal frameworks that ensure better protection and effective access to justice.
This workshop builds on the work initiated since 2015 by SWEDD, which placed the rights of girls and women at the heart of development priorities. By bringing together governments, regional institutions, and technical partners, the project has helped transform commitments into concrete policies, laying the foundations for a region where every girl and woman can grow, learn, work, and live free from violence.
SWEDD+ is an innovative project working across several countries in West and Central Africa to empower women and adolescent girls, and to improve their access to quality reproductive, maternal, and child health services.
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Media Contact:
Emmanuelle Landais Lopez, Media & communication Specialist SWEDD+
UNFPA, West and Central Africa Regional Office
Mail: landaislopez@unfpa.org
