“We should be respectful, but we must also have the courage to stop harmful practices that impoverish girls, women and their communities” – Graça Machel, Founder – The Graça Machel Trust
The Day of the African Child (DAC) is celebrated annually on June 16. It was first initiated by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to honour high-school students in South Africa who participated in the Soweto Uprising in 1976, protesting against apartheid-inspired education.
This year, we join our partners to commemorate the International Day of African Child (DAC2022) under the theme ‘Eliminating Harmful Practices Affecting Children: Progress on Policy and Practice since 2013’. It presents an opportunity to take stock of what has been done concerning adopting policies and practices and reflect on what more needs to be done to effectively eliminate harmful practices affecting children in Africa.
According to The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC), “Harmful practices affect the enjoyment of the right to education. Child, early, and forced marriage contributes to higher school dropouts and forced exclusion from schools. Failing to curb child marriage, governments fail in their obligation to ensure access to education for girls on an equal basis with boys.” They further argue that the right to education includes the right of women and adolescents to accurate information about sexual and reproductive health and rights, harmful practices’ impacts, and access to adequate and confidential services.
As a committee member of ACERWC, the Graça Machel Trust continues to commit its work to ensure that the millions of children in Africa can continue going to school and can access nutritious food. Apart from this, children need to be protected from ongoing daily violations, including poverty, harmful traditional practices, violence and discrimination against them.
With less than 10 years towards progress made on policies and commitments to end harmful practices affecting children and their prospects of going to school, we are still contributing to ensuring that all children have access to education. For example, the Trust made a commitment to generate evidence supporting scaling up accelerated learning models for out-of-school children in Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia. These three countries have been identified among the many African countries with disproportionately high levels of Out of School Children, mainly rural girls. This is of interest to the Trust’s contribution towards reducing the 52 million Out-Of-School- Girls (OOSG) in Africa and achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 and Aspiration 6 of the African Union Agenda 2063.
As limited educational opportunities keep girls from securing safe, reliable and rewarding employment and perpetuating chronic poverty, adolescent girls continue to experience early and forced marriage and are subjected to gender-based violence, abuse and other social ills. The Trust is catalysing the unleashing of adolescents’ strength so they can exercise full agency over their lives. This year, we launched an indigenous African movement, led and designed mainly by adolescent girls coming together to address societal barriers that affect them, including harmful practices. The Pan African Adolescent Girls Movement provides a platform for nurturing adolescent girls between the ages of 15 to 17 years by equipping them with skills, confidence and the agency to affirm their rights and dignity.
In May 2022 the WoMandla Foundation with the support of The Trust held a #PasiPemuti talk with teenage girls in Zimbabwe. The conversations under #SheSpeaks focus on empowering Adolescent girls. The talk sought to provide an opportunity for self-evaluation and reflection on their ambitions.
Additionally, information was sourced from The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC).
The Trust supports and mobilises civil society networks on issues of ending child marriage, ending violence against children, ending female genital mutilation and promoting children’s rights, to carry out advocacy and action across Africa. Special focus is placed on Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia where child marriage continues to be a problem largely driven by poverty, gender inequality, harmful traditional practices, conflict, low levels of literacy, limited opportunities for girls and weak or non-existent protective and preventive legal frameworks.
Education is a fundamental right for all children, which is also a vehicle for social, economic and political transformation in communities, countries and the African continent at large. Recent studies indicate a lack of progress in some of the critical commitments aimed at improving education quality, access, retention and achievement, particularly for girls. In most African countries, girls may face barriers to learning, especially when they reach post-primary levels of education. By implementing multi-dimensional approaches to education which includes core education, personal development, life skills and economic competencies, the Trust partners with funding partners, governments, civil societies and the private sector to improve education access.
The Nutrition and Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition, (RMNCAH+N) of the Children’s Rights and Development Programme aims at promoting the Global Strategy for women, children and adolescents’ health within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. The strategy emphasises on the importance of effective country leadership as a common factor across countries making progress in improving the health of women, children and adolescents.
Through its Early Childhood Development (ECD) plan, The Trust will seek to put into action the new science and evidence Report that was presented by Lancet Series on Good and early development – the right of every child. This will be achieved by mobilising like-minded partners to contribute in the new science and evidence to reach all young children with ECD. The Trust’s goal is to be a catalyst for doing things differently, in particular, to rid fragmentation and lack of coordination across ECD sectors. In response to evidence showing the importance of political will in turning the tide against the current poor access and quality of ECD. Even before conception, starting with a mother’s health and social economic conditions, the early years of a child’s life form a fundamental foundation that determines whether a child will survive and thrive optimally.