As mentioned in our opening article, TrustAfrica, as part of the implementation of its project: “Embracing the Challenge: Changing Social Norms for Equality and Empowerment of Women and Girls in Senegal, Mali, and Burkina Faso”, and to celebrate the International Women’s Day, organized a series of meetings throughout the month of March with our partners IES- Femmes (Association pour l’Intégration Economique et Sociale dans le Développement) in Burkina Faso;  ADE SAHEL (Alternative pour le Développement et l’Environnement au Sahel) in Mali, and; ALPHADEV (Alphabétiser pour un Développement Durable) in Senegal.

From Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal, 89 men and women participated in  debates exploring the feminist social movement and contributed to advance actions for a systemic change for engendering women’s rights and possible solutions to enhance women’s empowerment. The main outcome of this series of convenings was to consolidate the different platforms for engagement, exchange and coordination of strategies for the women’s rights movement.

During the series of events, champions were selected and will be invited during the month of April to take part in a data-driven advocacy training program with the aim to train gender advocates in the basics of data research, analysis, and evaluation, and to enable them to have a clearer understanding of how to use data in their advocacy work.