As part of its strong commitment to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, Canada continues to champion the health and rights of women and girls globally. This includes strengthening health systems so that women and adolescent girls have access to a full range of sexual and reproductive health services and information.

On behalf of the Honourable Maryam Monsef, Minister of International Development and Minister for Women and Gender Equality, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, today announced up to $20 million over the next five years to help improve access to quality health and reproductive services for women and girls in Mali.

The funding is being provided to a consortium that includes the Centre de coopération internationale en santé et développement, the Cégep de Saint-Jérôme and the Université de Sherbrooke. With federal support, the consortium will train more than 2,800 health professionals, managers and trainers in the Bamako, Kayes, Koulikoro, Ségou and Sikasso regions on gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights. The project will also contribute to building the capacity of managers responsible for the Malian government’s human resources management to improve the performance of the health system.