The NEPAD Spanish Fund for African Women Empowerment has approved funding for 31 projects in Sub-Saharan African countries worth 8,209,745 Euros in its determination to empower women in the region and boost development.

The projects which were selected by the Steering Committee of the Fund in Madrid on February 29, 2012, are scheduled for completion between 12 and 24 months.

More than 600 proposals were received from non-governmental organisations, grassroots groups, academic institutions and regional economic communities across sub-Saharan Africa.

This was contained in a release issued by the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency and copied to the Ghana News Agency.

It said the NEPAD Spanish Fund was involved in the areas of health, economic development, and education, while at the same time promoting social and political participation of women in the development process. Its ultimate goal was to empower women economically, to build capacity of civil society organizations as well as other institutions.

Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, NEPAD Agency’s Chief Executive Officer, said: "NEPAD and the Government of the Kingdom of Spain share a common goal of advancing gender equality and gender equity. The implementation of the NEPAD Spanish Fund represents one of the key steps to achieve this goal.”

The Director of the Spanish Agency for International Development (AECI), Mr. Juan Lopez-Doriga, praised NEPAD’s Gender Programme for its meticulous, thorough and diligent work in the selection process.

The latest approvals are the second batch to be sanctioned by the Fund since its creation in 2007. In the first phase, 46 projects were funded. Out of the number, 38 have been successfully completed while others are nearing conclusion.

Prominent among projects funded under the first phase were Incubators for African Women Entrepreneurs in regional bodies such as the Common Market for East Africa and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the release noted.