English

The Réseau Siggil Jigéen is a NGO that aims to promote and protect women’s rights in Senegal. Established in 1995, RSJ today consists of 16 member organisations that are directly involved in the lives of more than 12,000 Senegalese women. Our members are involved in a variety of subjects at a national level in order to improve the status of Senegalese women, including reproduction and health, research, women’s rights, youth leadership, literacy, training, micro-finance, the fight against poverty, etc.

Our mission: To contribute to the improvement and reinforcement of the status of Senegalese women.

Our Vision

To establish gender equality within Senegalese and African society in order to contribute to lasting  and sustainable human development

Our Name

The name, « Siggil Jigéen, » has both a symbolic and philosophic signification within Senegalese culture; it expresses the common objective among the founder organizations to reinforce and promote the status of Senegalese women. In Wolof, « Siggil » means to enhance, rehabilitate, promote, and defend, while « Jigéen » means women, and by extension, the family or the society.

Our Projects:

A Partnership for the Improvement of Quality Health Services in Senegal: RSJ and its member organizations are proposing to involve 11 regions for 5 years in a model called “Partenariat pour l’Amelioration pour la Qualite” (PAQ).These regions include Dakar, Thies, Louga, Saint-Louis, Kaloack, Ziguinchor Kolda, Sedhiou, Kaffrine, fatick, and Diourbel.PAQ is a model proposed by IntraHealth International that has been used in Rwanda with promising results.  PAQ strives to meet the major challenges associated with the provision of quality services within these villages (including accessibility to services, operation of services, health personal, and relations with the private sector). The project also aims to increase the usage of the “Paquet Integre de Services de Quality (PISQ), in order to support efforts undertaken by the Senegalese government to reach its Millenium Development Goals.

A Protocol for Equality: The coalition “Droit et Citoyennete des Femmes” (DCF) and the countries of West Africa have taken the initiative to adopt a judicial stance in order to effectively fight for gender equality within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), following in the footsteps of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). These coalitions, including coalitions from Burkina-Faso, Guinea, Mali, Niger, and RSJ in Senegal, have expanded the movement to other coalitions in ECOWAS, as well as to civil society, human rights, and sustainable development organizations.

Family Planning: RSJ and CEFOREP developed a program to integrate six villages into ISSU (Initiative Senegalese de Santé Urban). The team CEFOREP/RSJ proposes a strategy that consolidates the efforts of ISSU and finishes all projects that have already started at national and local levels. This should contribute to: Informing national and municipal leaders about the importance of family planning in attaining development objectives; Creating a group of politicians who can support family planning while creating a strategy to fight against maternal, neonatal, and infant mortality; Reinforce the advocacy capacity of the team that is already in place in favor of family planning