On Friday 23 May 2025 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, ECOWAS, in partnership with UNFPA, celebrated the International Day for the Eradication of Obstetric Fistula and the 50th anniversary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).Obstetric fistula is a serious childbirth injury that affects two million women in low-resource settings, with 100,000 new cases each year.
This double celebration marks ECOWAS’s commitment to women’s rights and to the fight against this pathology.
Through this collective mobilisation, ECOWAS intends to highlight the progress made thanks to a holistic approach to care: medical, psychological and socio-economic, and to engage with key regional health stakeholders to highlight the urgency of treating fistula and other childbirth-related injuries as part of the Global Health Agenda.
As a reminder, ECOWAS, through the ECOWAS Gender Development Centre (EGDC) took the initiative in 2010 to implement a large-scale programme of medical and financial support for women and girls suffering from obstetric fistula in ECOWAS Member States.