Increasing Aid for Girls’ Education and Family Planning in the West African Sahel

This conference was held as an official side event of the Global Education Summit. Participants discussed: What will it take to meet the unmet needs for family planning and girls’ education in the Sahel? Why should these be a priority for overseas development assistance to the region? How can these investments leverage better outcomes in the Sahel and beyond? For more information, see our white paper, A Fulcrum for the Future.

Click here to read our consensus statement (En)

Cliquez ici pour lire notre déclaration de consensus (Fr)

 

Speakers

Nicolas Meda (1).jpeg

Nicolas Meda,

Special Advisor to the President of Burkina Faso on Human Capital Development

Why are we here? The importance of girls’ education & family planning to security in the Sahel.

Video | Slides

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Brooke Russell,

Associate Director, AidData at College of William and Mary

Fulcrum for the Future: Girls’ Education and Voluntary Family Planning: The Best Investments for Development and Security in the Sahel

Video | Slides | White Paper

Pape Amadou Gaye (1).jpeg

Pape Amadou Gaye,

Founder and President, Baobab Institute for Health and Development

The challenge: Population and Development in the Sahel (French)

Video

Moderated Panel Discussions

Educating girls in the classroom and beyond: a case study from northern Nigeria

Panelists: Habiba Mohammed, Mardhiyyah Abbas Mashi, Maryam Albashir, Sakina Abdulkadir

Moderator: Daniel Perlman

Video

Proven and Promising Approaches: Investment recommendations for Voluntary Family Planning (French)

Panelists: Marie Ba, Harou Issoufa, Nènè Fofana-Cissé, Maria Middah

Moderator: Ndola Prata

Video

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Malcolm Potts,

Founder, OASIS Initiative, University of California, Berkeley

More funding for girls’ education & family planning? HIV funding: A cautionary tale

Video | Slides

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Djimé Adoum,

Sahel Coalition

Call to Action: Increase overseas development aid for girls’ education and family planning

Video

 

Increasing access to family planning and quality education are strategic, mutually reinforcing interventions that enhance self-determination for women and girls. Better educated, more empowered women tend to choose smaller families, slowing population growth in rights-based ways and generating a “demographic dividend” that can put the Sahel on the path toward the Sustainable Development Goals.

Gains in education and family planning will result in gains in other sectors, making Sahel communities healthier, more resilient, better resourced, more prosperous, and more stable and secure.

This represents a cost-effective way for donor countries and international organizations to ameliorate the Sahel crisis and have far-reaching impacts on the region’s future. Targeted investments in family planning and girls’ education can mitigate future humanitarian need and help reverse worsening migration, terrorism and unrest.

 

Now is the time to invest more in proven solutions that can enhance the wellbeing of families and build lasting stability in the region.

 

Overseas Development Aid Analysis

OASIS has conducted research that confirms investments in contraception and girls’ education offer a multiplier benefit across health, economic, social and environmental sectors in the Sahel. For more analysis of Overseas Development Aid priorities and opportunities in the Sahel, see our white paper, A Fulcrum for the Future.

Benefits of investing in women and girls’ education

Benefit per dollar spent for various development targets

 
 
 

Source: Copenhagen Consensus Center

 

Why invest in the Sahel?

This two-minute excerpt of a press conference by Toby Lanzer, the former Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), captures the urgency of acting now to address rapid population growth in the Sahel.

  • Read about Centre for Girls Education safe spaces in northern Nigeria, which led to an increase in the age of girls' marriages by 2.5 years here.

  • Our comment in Nature making the case for increased investment in girls and women in the Sahel can be read here.

 
 

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