Project profile — ACT WOMEN: Empowering Women and Adolescent Girls in Tchologo Communities

• Côte d'Ivoire (100.00%)

• Basic health care:
Basic health care (12220) (25.00%)
Basic nutrition (12240) (5.00%)
• Population policy and administrative management:
Population policy and administrative management (13010) (35.00%)
Personnel development for population and reproductive health (13081) (35.00%)

• Participatory development and good governance (significant objective)
• Nutrition (significant objective)
• Children's issues (significant objective)
• Gender equality (principal objective)
• Youth Issues (significant objective)
• ICT as a tool for development (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (significant objective)

This project aims to empower women and adolescent girls and improve their sexual and reproductive health, as well as maternal and infant health, in the Tchologo region of Côte d’Ivoire. Project’s activities include: (1) conducting analyses on gender roles within the community and identifying socio-cultural barriers to access to services and risk factors; (2) raising awareness among communities, mothers, husbands and adolescents to improve behaviours related to sexual and reproductive health, maternal and infant health, nutrition, and outbreak prevention; (3) supporting members of women’s and adolescent girls’ associations in establishing healthy and sustainable association management mechanisms; (4) training and raising awareness among community leaders and officials on inclusive governance so that women and adolescent girls can participate in local decision making; and (5) training women’s and adolescent girls’ associations on the use of referral services and mechanisms for survivors of gender based violence. This project is intended to directly benefit more than 192,000 people (more than 62% of whom are women and adolescent girls) and, indirectly, the entire population of the 15 targeted health zones in the Tchologo region, or more than 328,000 people.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) women and girls have more influence over the availability and quality of services related to sexual and reproductive health, maternal and infant health, nutrition, psychosocial support, prevention, and outbreak response; (2) women, girls and their representative organizations are more involved in social accountability and decision making mechanisms; and (3) women and girls are more empowered to exercise their rights in relation to equality, sexual and reproductive health, and the elimination of gender based violence.

Results achieved up to March 2025 include: (1) Testimony from 41.9% of women and adolescent girls indicated that their opinions are taken into account in the decision-making of health center management committees supported by the project, compared to 21.4% at the beginning of the project. This demonstrates significant progress in women's participation and influence within social accountability mechanisms of the Tchologo region; (2) A statement from 72.1% of women and 71.7% of adolescent girls affirmed that they had received care that respected their rights. This exceeds the initial target of 60% for both groups, thanks to support measures, strengthening of the regional health system, legal clinics, the establishment and equipping of mental health listening centers, as well as the construction of water, hygiene, and sanitation infrastructure. This reflects an improvement in the quality of sexual and reproductive health services in the areas supported by the project.

• Proactive disclosure
• Related activities: ACT WOMEN: Empowering Women and Adolescent Girls in Tchologo Communities - 2