( AfDB ) - The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank has approved a grant of $11.26 million to the Government of Chad to finance the Girls' Education and Women's Literacy Project– the first Bank grant exclusively targeting women and girls.

The project will be financed from the Bank's Transition Support Facility and will be implemented over a five-year period by the Chadian Ministry of National Education and Civic Promotion, in coordination with partners involved in the education sector, civil society organisations, and youth organisations. The Chadian government will contribute a non-monetary contribution of $713,000 towards the program.

"Through this financing, the African Development Bank is providing support to the Chadian government to reduce inequalities through access to education - especially for girls. This enables the development of job skills and the improvement of women's productivity potential through literacy, job training and the development of income-generating activities," said Solomane Koné, the Bank’s Deputy Director for Central Africa.

The Project aims to help improve access to quality secondary education in a safe and healthy school environment for 5,000 girls as well as train 2,200 teachers and administrative officials. It is also expected to provide literacy programs to more than 7,500 women in Chad’s Hadjer Lamis, Ouaddaï and N'Djaména regions, The Bank-funded project has a component to raise awareness among target-area residents about reducing incidence of gender-based violence, as well as on the importance of girls' schooling to reduce early marriage and pregnancy. In Chad, 67% of girls are married before the age of 18, and 30% of girls are married before the age of 15, according to non-governmental organization Girls Not Brides.

The Girls' Education and Women's Literacy Project plans to renovate or rebuild school buildings and institutions, such as the Amriguébé school complex in N'Djamena that educates pre-primary, primary and high school children, and a new women's high school in Massakory, Hadjer Lamis region, which would receive educational, scientific and digital equipment. Project components have provisions to help supply both schools with safe drinking water, solar power, school clinics, build girl-friendly latrines, as well as establish computer and science laboratories.

The Girls' Education and Women's Literacy Project is integrated into the Government of Chad’s Interim Education Plan which is working to upgrade the nation’s education system and strengthen human capital –education, health and well-being of children and youth today who will become Chad’s working population of tomorrow.