The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has marked a significant milestone in promoting the health and dignity of girls in Benin by presenting, in Cotonou on 5 February 2026, the results of a transformative project focused on raising awareness of good personal and menstrual hygiene practices, as well as promoting regional integration among young people. Organised by the ECOWAS Representation in Benin with the financial support of the West African Health Organisation (WAHO), the capitalisation workshop highlighted tangible, high-impact results achieved in the municipalities of Z\u00e8 and Djidja.<\/p>\n
Bringing together national authorities, sectoral ministries, local government entities, educational institutions, and ECOWAS Communities living in Benin, represented by UR-ECOWAS and ECOWOMAN, the meeting reflected strong collective mobilisation in support of adolescent girls\u2019 well-being and empowerment. Through a coordinated and multi-sectoral approach, the project facilitated the training of institutional actors, the distribution of 5,000 reusable menstrual hygiene kits, and awareness-raising activities reaching more than 5,000 girls and boys, while also strengthening their understanding of ECOWAS\u2019 mandate and values.<\/p>\n
Beyond the quantitative achievements, the initiative underscores ECOWAS\u2019 determination to anchor its actions at the community level by linking health, education and regional integration. It reaffirms the Organisation\u2019s commitment to building an ECOWAS of the People, where social inclusion and youth empowerment serve as essential drivers of sustainable development and regional cohesion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has marked a significant milestone in promoting the health and dignity of girls in Benin by presenting, in Cotonou on 5 February 2026, the results of a transformative project focused on raising awareness of good personal and menstrual hygiene practices, as well as promoting regional integration among […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":126054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[300,480,12,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-news","category-info-cedeao-2","category-news","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126072,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126053\/revisions\/126072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/126054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}