We have completed the first year of our new four-year regional action plan, with activities and initiatives implemented in line with the:

Global UNFPA Strategic Plan 2018-2021 aiming to contribute to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063, and its roadmap on the Demographic Dividend.

Significant progress has been made in the provision of frontline reproductive health services to those in dire need, but much more still needs to be done. As part of the Ouagadougou Partnership, in which UNFPA is a core partner, the coordinated interventions of the partnership’s actors have enabled an additional 1,398,000 women to access and use modern contraceptive methods (63 per cent of target by 2020), from 2016 to 2018. Furthermore, UNFPA has contributed 70% to meeting WCARO countries’ contraceptive needs in 2018, while two other partners contributed the remaining 30%.

Our various campaigns and interventions have yielded positive results with traditional, community-based and religious leaders embracing the demographic dividend (DD) ideal. Some influential local leaders, are also championing and advocating finding the courage to say “No” to child marriages, supporting family planning and abandoning female genital mutilation.