Stronger Africa–Europe partnerships key to advancing education and health rights of adolescent girls in Africa
Adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa continue to be disproportionately affected by the AIDS epidemic. Approximately 4200 adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa acquire HIV every week. In 2020, five in six adolescents aged between 15 and 19 years newly acquiring HIV in the region were girls. An estimated 23 300 adolescent girls and young women died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2020 in sub-Saharan Africa, making it the second leading cause of death of adolescent girls and young women after maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. The figures represent lives disrupted and lost as AIDS remains a public health threat to survival, well-being, human rights and fundamental freedoms.
At an African Union–European Union pre-summit event, Adolescent Girls in Africa Completing Secondary School, Safe, Strong, Empowered: Time for Education Plus, speakers called for robust action to respond to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on girls’ education in Africa.
The event, held as part of the Education Plus initiative, drew participants from the African Union, the European Union, African champion countries (Benin and Sierra Leone), the cosponsoring Governments of Finland, France, Portugal and Spain, the Global Network of Young People Living with HIV and the United Nations co-lead agencies.
The Education Plus initiative, launched in 2021 and co-led by UNAIDS, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Children’s Fund and UN Women, responds to the aggravated risk of HIV infection, high incidences of teenage pregnancy, sexual and gender-based violence and early marriage as well as school-to-work transitions, by calling for the completion of quality secondary education by adolescent girls and young women in Africa. Through the initiative, countries will work to guarantee free and universal access to quality secondary education while providing a Plus package to protect health rights and deliver on gender equality and the empowerment of girls and young women in Africa.
As a high-level political advocacy drive, the Education Plus initiative rallies for accelerated action and investments to prevent HIV, centred on the empowerment of adolescent girls and young women and the achievement of gender equality in sub-Saharan Africa, with secondary education as the strategic entry point.
The pre-summit event reflected on old and emerging challenges to the education and health rights of adolescent girls and young women and the opportunity for countries on both continents to collaborate and make transformative changes.
QUOTES
“The newly identified highly transmissible HIV variant is an urgent reminder that we cannot drop the ball on AIDS. The data are alarming, particularly for adolescent girls and young women in Africa and other marginalized groups and communities. Every week, 4200 adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa are newly infected with HIV.” WINNIE BYANYIMA UNAIDS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
“The biggest problem we have now is more on the transition from primary to post-primary. That’s why the work on secondary education is extremely important. Looking at the learning environment and how we make it conducive for girls, how we mobilize communities and society around social norms that are hampering access and continuation of education and how we find ways for girls to catch up from the impact of COVID-19.” MOHAMMED FALL UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN’S FUND REGIONAL DIRECTOR FOR EASTERN AND SOUTHERN AFRICA
“Education is at the heart of collective Africa–Europe. The European Union will pay particular attention to the inclusion of girls and women and to reducing gender disparities in enrolment, progression and retention in education and lifelong learning.” CHIARA ADAMO ACTING DIRECTOR FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, MIGRATION, GOVERNANCE AND PEACE, DIRECTORATE-GENERAL INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT, EUROPEAN COMMISSION
“We need to work together so that we do not lose the gains over the last decades. In moving forward, girls and young women must all acquire—at the minimum—secondary education. The universal secondary education package should entail providing the necessary skills and competencies to address the issues they face, such as sexual harassment, rape, early pregnancy, early marriage, discrimination at work, limited livelihood opportunities.” RITA BISSONAUTH HEAD OF MISSION, AFRICAN UNION INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR GIRLS AND WOMEN’S EDUCATION IN AFRICA
“In Benin, we commit to investing in full and equal access to education for both girls and boys. This is enormous, but it is a smart investment. Maintaining girls in school contributes to preventing new HIV infections, early marriage and unwanted pregnancies. The Education Plus initiative has the potential of transforming the lives of adolescents and young women, strengthening society and the nation.” KOUARO YVES CHABI MINISTER OF SECONDARY, TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION, BENIN
“Stigma and discrimination in education and health settings for young people in all their diversity is not new. The situation has been protracted because we are not angry enough; if we were, the issues would have been addressed with more urgency. Retain focus on ensuring that adolescent girls and young women in all their diversity are ethically and meaningfully engaged in development.” JOYCE OUMA INFLUENCE AND ENGAGEMENT ADVISER, Y+ GLOBAL
“The rights of women and girls and quality inclusive education are top priorities in our development policy. This also means a focus on sexual and reproductive rights, comprehensive sexuality education and freedom from gender-based violence and harassment. These are top on our agenda for cooperation in our new Africa strategy towards stronger political and economic partnership with African countries and the African Union.” THOMAS BLOMQVIST MINISTER FOR NORDIC COOPERATION AND GENDER EQUALITY, FINLAND
“We are currently finalizing the Education Plus national operational plan, aligned to the National Development Plan and the Education Sector Plan. Because of our experience from Ebola, we saw that a lot of girls were getting pregnant, and we were able to strengthen messages on sexual and gender-based violence on radio and also passed the radical inclusion policy, which allows pregnant girls back to school so that they don’t drop out.” DAVID SENGEH MINISTER OF BASIC AND SENIOR SECONDARY EDUCATION, SIERRA LEONE
“Access to health care is a fundamental human right, inalienable and non-negotiable. We need to change the paradigm if we want to change the status quo. We all know that to do so, education is an absolutely fundamental axis.” ELISABETH MORENO MINISTER DELEGATE FOR GENDER EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES, FRANCE
“We need young women-led programmes that put girls and young women as key players to the change they want to see. When young women are part of the solution, it empowers them and gives them a purpose of advancing change and transforms not only their lives but also the lives of their peers.” HAZEL JOJO YOUNG WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP HUB, EDUCATION PLUS
“Spain is part of the global partnership for education and finances programmes. In this we see that for every additional year that a girl stays in the education system, her income will increase between 10% and 20% for the remainder of her life.” PILAR CANCELA SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION, SPAIN
“Promoting young people’s access to health services and universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights is a fundamental constituent of health care in Portugal. We focus on overcoming a set of barriers that make access to such services easier and less awkward for young people, including boys and girls.” RUI PORTUGAL DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF HEALTH, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF HEALTH, PORTUGAL
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