Western Africa includes Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. West Africa strived to find creative ways to maneuver around the pandemic and pass policies to help women. 94% of the policies involved gender sensitivity from creating more economic security for women to passing policies on violence against women and girls. There were +80 policies passed during the pandemic that involved gender sensitivity. The governments actively took on an initiative to try to find ways (e.g. hotlines) for women to have access to someone if they are dealing with violence in their household. During the pandemic, Western African governments passed policies trying to help uplift the communities and create more economic security for the women in these countries.

Ivory Coast passed a diverse number of policies trying to improve labor, social and economic services. Ivory Coast also had a violence against women and girls campaign promoting the government resources open to the public.  

• During the pandemic, Ivory Coast Minister of Women along with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) worked in starting a hotline to report gender based violence. The hotline was a resource for women to report an assault to law enforcement. 

• Ivory Coast passed financial policies, allowing residents to postpone their payment for up to three months. This policy was especially helpful for those who work in the consumer services industry because 10% of women work in the restaurant and hotel industry compared to 1% of men.   

Mali passed policies directly addressing women economic security. There was a strong initiative put into place by the Mali government to help strengthen the countries economic security because the pandemic brought economic uncertainty. 

•  Mali passed legislation that would help support their country during the pandemic by creating tax benefits for the sectors most affected by the pandemic, which was the tourism and hotel industry. Twice the amount of women work in the tourism and hotel industry compared to men. These policies helped women economically navigate through the turbulent times of the pandemic.