On October 5 and 6 in Ouagadougou, our West Africa office team actively participated in the first national conference on decentralized cooperation under the theme " Decentralized Cooperation and Empowerment of Local Authorities ."
Sharing experiences on the role of SRHR
Placed under the patronage of His Excellency the President of Burkina Faso, the aim of this conference was to create a framework enabling local elected officials to forge new partnerships with a view to increasing the autonomy of their local authorities and improving the living conditions and health of their populations, especially girls and women. Equipop was able to share its experience during the various workshops. Equipop works with more than 30 mayors in Burkina Faso to promote the sexual and reproductive rights and health of girls and women, including family planning (FP). Its technical expertise, developed over more than two decades, is made available to these mayors to help them develop relevant projects aimed at improving the health conditions of girls and women in their respective municipalities.
The mayors' manifesto for promoting FP in municipalities widely signed
As the only NGO at the conference with a stand, Equipop was able to present the "Mayors Championing Family Planning" manifesto to various dignitaries. The manifesto was drafted by some 60 mayors from Benin, Senegal, Niger, Côte d'Ivoire, and Burkina Faso during a workshop organized by Equipop to monitor mayors' financial commitments to family planning. The aim of this manifesto is to invite their counterparts to commit to promoting family planning activities in their municipalities. This call was heard by 58 of their peers from Mali and Burkina Faso, who signed the manifesto during the conference.
