African Renaissance & the Future Young African
Women Want:
Our
Commitments, Priorities & Recommendations
Preamble
We the young women from more than
20 countries convened in the Young Women’s Forum on 21 January 2013 the margins
of the 20th African Union Summit under the theme: “Pan Africanism and the African Renaissance”,
committed to defining the future we want.
We are women, we are citizens and
we are young. We come in our diversity as young women who are single, married,
widowed, we are mothers and sisters. We are working women, we are
entrepreneurs, innovators, unemployed, we are living in the streets and we are in
international business. We come with our diversity of sexual identity, we are
women in sex work, we are women living positively with HIV; and disabilities,
we are migrants, we are refugees and we are from the diaspora. We are Africa.
We draw on the aspirations of our ancestors, the richness of our cultures and
the roundedness in the spirit of Ubuntu.
As young women we celebrate:
·
We celebrate, the African Union
for the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality and the Africa Protocol on
Women’s Rights in Africa; as well as the Africa Charter on the Rights and
Welfare of the Child. We want to celebrate the application of the gender parity
principle in the African Union Commission.
·
We celebrate Africa for trusting
a capable African leader, mother and elder, Dr Nkosazana Dhlamini-Zuma, the
first woman to lead the African Union Commission. We commit our availability,
expertise, commitment and support in leading African Renaissance.
·
We celebrate the recent trend in
increased numbers of women in senior leadership positions such as Heads of
State; in parliaments, commissions, in diplomatic services and other spaces of
decision making in our communities. However, this trend is too slow and
insufficient considering that women comprise fifty two percent of the
population. Increased number of women in decision making encourages young women
and girls to aspire on their own dreams.
·
We celebrate the positive strides
in progress in education for the girls; the reduction in prevalence in HIV
especially among women, some notable increase access of health facilities in
some countries. Technology and mobile telephony has increased access to
information, access to services, amplified our voices. These are building
blocks for the future young women want.
·
We celebrate the women’s movement
and the social movement for raising the gender issues affecting young women and
girls and leveraging opportunities for young women. We therefore encourage
stronger intergenerational leadership and support of young women’s initiatives.
·
We celebrate our sisters, young
women and girls across the continent and in the diaspora, who against all odds
continue to strive for a better life for themselves, their families, nations
and communities. We carry the dreams, hope and dreams of Africa, and of the
world we want as global citizens.
It is with sadness, anger and frustration that:
·
Young women remain disempowered
marginalized and excluded. Young women continue to have limited access to
information, training, education and technology. We continue to have limited
access to quality, affordable, youth friendly education, health and legal
services.
·
Young people especially those
living in rural communities, in urban slums and refugee and displaced camps
face extreme unacceptable levels of poverty and have the highest levels of
vulnerability particularly young women living with disabilities.
·
Many young women living with HIV
in our continent continue to be discriminated against and do not have quality
access to sexual reproductive health services and access to treatment. We know
it is possible to have zero new infections in children and no AIDS related
deaths in our lifetime.
·
Many young women on our continent
continue to experience violence in their homes, at school, countries in
conflict, on internet, at the work place, in places of worship, and in
political spaces. Such violence includes incest, rape, verbal abuse, stalking,
emotional and psychological abuse. These are criminal acts that should be
treated as such. Again we continue to have limited access to services for
survivors and victims of violence and unacceptable levels of impunity.
·
There
is a lack of quality productive employment and decent jobs with most young
people especially young women being employed in the informal and vulnerable
employment sectors. Beyond jobs, we committed entrepreneurs and innovators,
ready to turn our pain into gain for the continent and for our families.
·
Two
thirds of the 40 million African children who do not attend school are girls,
while only about 60 percent of girls who go to primary school and the majority,
53.2 percent of African women are illiterate. Education for girls is the main
key for opening the doors to the future for gender equality.
Our Commitments,
We, the African young women are committed to building a new
narrative for Africa with our skills, expertise and
lived experiences through:
·
Our groundedness with our
families, communities and social and economic spaces. Our creativity,
innovation and connectedness in our countries in the regions and beyond.
·
Harnessing the power of
technology in shaping a prosperous Africa, and with peace with itself. Effective
participation and contribution in public policy as part of the women and
youth’s movement.
·
Speak
out when violated; to educating other young women and girls.
·
Being
in solidarity with our sisters globally especially in response to issues of
because of rights.
We therefore
identify the following Priorities and Recommendations:
Priorities and Recommendations
1.
Violence against Women and Girls
We want a future free of violence against women and girls at all levels
and in all spaces. We especially call for violence prevention, support to
survivors and victims of violence, access to justice and ending impunity. And
we recommend:
1)
The removal of negative cultural and religious practices and norms that
create vulnerability to violence of young women such as child and forced marriage;
and build on the positive cultural religious practices that promote the dignity
and respect for young women and girls.
2)
Implementation of laws and policies that protect women’s rights
especially the rights of young women and girls and increase knowledge on human
rights for young people.
3)
Increase in access to quality resources and funding for programs
targeted at violence prevention and support to survivors of violence.
4)
Creation and support of safe spaces for young women and girls to access
information counseling and referral services.
5)
The Adoption of an AU Resolution for all African governments to end
impunity in the fight against sexual violence against women and bring an end to
child marriage.
6)
The provision of legal assistance for young women and girls to access
justice and ensure stiff sentences for sexual abusers of girls including
through such measures such as castration.
7)
Prioritization of economic empowerment and education for girls as
critical aspects of prevention of violence against women.
2.
Health
An
unacceptable number of young women die due to preventable maternal
complications including unsafe abortions. HIV prevalence among young people, teenage
pregnancies and early marriages are still high due to lack of access to sexual
reproductive health information and services. We therefore recommend that:
1)
Governments
should prioritize health and not guns; and create access to affordable youth
friendly health care services.
2)
Increase
numbers of motivated and well-resourced health workers; of whom the majority
serving poor communities are young women.
3)
Increase
health services for women with disabilities, especially young women and girls
with mental health.
4)
Ensure
that resources available globally such as the Global Fund on HIV, malaria and
tuberculosis, the U.N Trust Fund on Violence against women; as well as
development banks at the national, regional development banks must have a
special window to respond to issues of young women and health.
3.
Peace & Conflict
Today, as young women
we are hurting together with our sisters in countries that are experiencing
conflict such as Mali, Congo, Central African Republic and Sudan. We remain in
fear of violence for countries going into elections such as Kenya, Zimbabwe,
and Togo. We stand in solidarity with our sisters who are re-building their
communities in post conflict countries such as Liberia, Sierra Léon, Cote de
Ivoire, Burundi among others. Our lives as young women are also threatened by
general levels of criminal behavior, community violence and disasters like
Marikina and religious conflicts like those in the Northern part of Nigeria.
The situation in North Africa remains a concern as Africa finds lasting
solutions to all these problems.
As young women our
dream for Africa is a continent of peace, of coexistence and good
neighborliness. We therefore recommend the following:
1) Young people
should not be exploited for military and political purposes but should be a
resource for building democracy and a just society. Young people should be part
of the mediations in finding lasting solutions in crises
3) The African Union
should appoint a high level special representative for violence against women
and girls and facilitate the effective participation of women in mediation and
conflict resolution.
4) Young people
should be deployed as observers during elections as a contribution to building
the culture of peace.
5) Ensure protection
for young human rights and peace advocates.
4.
Education
We recognize that there has been
significant progress in advancing education for girls. However it has focused
mainly on primary education and not sufficiently on vocational and tertiary
education. Education is key to unlocking opportunities for employment,
leadership a life free of violence, empowerment of women.
1) Ensure comprehensive and age
appropriate sexuality education.
2) Promoting sport that focuses on young women as
part of mental, physical and intellectual development.
3) Promote female artisanship, art and
culture as part of passing on the African identity.
4) Resourcing
local learning centers in rural schools including developing rural resource
centers and libraries to give access to information.
5) Languages are the potential in promoting
African identity, and therefore governments should promote indigenous languages
as well as African Union languages from primary education.
5.
Economic Empowerment
Economic
empowerment of young people is the bedrock for creating a prosperous Africa,
and especially creating opportunities for entrepreneurship and decent
employment for young women. This can be achieved by:
·
Creating a framework to
enable the training of young women in entrepreneurship and the mentorship and Committing
to empower young people by giving them spaces and opportunities to learn and
build capacity through internship programs.
·
Ensuring opportunities
for accessing employment and decent jobs.
·
Implementing and
enforcing policies that guarantee the right of women to land and property
ownership;
·
Governments must adapt
policies that protect the rights of Domestic Workers that prevent labor
exploitation.
·
Improving right of
girls and women to inherent and own property.
6.
Leadership
Young women are
leaders of today and not tomorrow. Today the leadership of young people remains
invisible in public institutions, the private sector, media organizations and
civil society and women’s networks. Yet, young people have ideas, expertise and
experience that can shape democracy and civic engagement for the achievement of
a transformative agenda. This can be achieved through:
·
Shifts
in attitudes that leadership is about knowledge, commitment, responsibility,
trust and lived experiences and young people can be trusted and therefore young
people can be given leadership opportunities.
·
Internship
and fellowship programs for young women within the AU and other institutions at
all levels
·
Inter-generational
leadership for building structures that groom leaders.
·
Creation
of a fund at regional level specifically aimed at empowering young women.
·
Encouraging
government to appoint ambassadors for women and girls as an advocacy and policy
strategy for the African Decade for Women.
·
Leadership
of Africa to be exemplary.
Conclusion
In conclusion we would like
to thank the World YWCA for convening this summit. We also would want to extend
our sincere appreciation to our partners who have shown great commitment in
supporting young women’s leadership, namely: U.N Women, Urgent Action Fund
Africa, UNFPA, Angie Brookes. FAS, Girls Not Brides, The Partnership of
Maternal, New-born and Child Health, Action Aid and others that have not been
mentioned. As young women we are committed to moving this agenda forward with
support from the women’s movements and our partners.
