Our Pan-African Girls’ Movement, a pioneering initiative led by African adolescent girls, continues to grow. In Kenya, the Movement has partnered with the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) to create three “Nests” in Kiambu, Marakwet, and Narok counties, reaching over 500 adolescent girls. Similarly, in South Africa, collaboration with Future Lift and Khulisani’s Campaign for Girls resulted in two Nests comprising 207 girls. In Zimbabwe, the Womandla Foundation facilitated the setup of another Nest, which has supported more than 100 girls since March 2024.
Photo: Campaign 4 Girls Nest in South Africa (left) WoMandla Nest in Zimbabwe (top) and Marakweet Nest in Kenya (bottom).
July 2024 marked another expansion into Ethiopia, where a new Nest was launched in Addis Ababa in collaboration with the Model Africa Union. Sixty girls participated in piloting the curriculum, programme facilitators were trained, and a steering committee w was established, integrating participants into the broader regional network.
Photo: Some of the adolescent girls from the Model Africa Union Nest in Ethiopia
The Movement’s custom, rights-based curriculum, co-created with the adolescent girls themselves, supports them in reflecting on their challenges, proposing solutions, and actively engaging with their communities and decision-makers.
At the recent Gender Is My Agenda Campaign (GIMAC) Youth Conference on 14 July 2024 in Accra, Ghana, Juliet Kimotho, the Graça Machel Trust’s Advocacy Manager, reaffirmed the Trust’s dedication to ensuring that adolescent girls’ challenges and successes are recognised and addressed. This event offered a crucial platform for the Trust to engage strategically with youth across Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and the African Union, reinforcing the importance of their involvement in programme implementation. As a partner in the Sixth GIMAC Network, the Trust advocates for girls’ rights and broader gender issues at influential continental bodies like the African Union. The 6th GIMAC Youth Experience brought together young women from various backgrounds, fostering connections and strengthening bonds of sisterhood. The Trust’s participation in GIMAC is crucial for amplifying these voices, with the hope that the insights gained during the summit will help leaders make informed decisions on the challenges faced by young women across Africa. Read the report here.
The Trust collaborates with organisations like the GIMAC Network to continuously advocate for the rights of women and adolescent girls. Our Pan African Adolescent Girls’ Movement and Fair4All project teams contributed to developing the GIMAC Pre-Summit CSOs Consultative meeting outcome statement for the African Union. The pre-summit consultation brings together civil societies from across the continent to address ground-level issues constructively. Learn more about GIMAC here.
Joining hands across borders – the annual jubilee
In March this year the Graça Machel Trust’s Adolescent Girls’ Movement held its 3rd annual jubilee. The hybrid event connected over 250 young women aged 10 to 20 from five African countries to address critical issues facing teenage girls in Africa. This year’s theme, “Promoting quality education to transform the holistic development of African Adolescent Girls,” focused on the challenges of high adolescent birth rates and low female education retention. Changemakers, stakeholders, and partner organisations joined to discuss and develop collaborative solutions. The Jubilee underscored the need for adolescent participation in addressing educational barriers. It provided a platform for girls to share their challenges in staying in school and highlighted the importance of the Pan African Adolescent Girls Movement. This event marked progress in expanding the movement’s reach and tackling the education challenges of the 21st century, to build resilient education systems across the continent. Watch Jubilee highlights video here.
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.