Tag a Life International (TaLI), a girls and young women’s rights organization in Zimbabwe, will host the first-ever Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) Africa Conference from the 23rd to the 25th of November.
The conference is premised on providing a platform for African girls to discuss their developmental issues as it relates to the impact of Covid-19 on their rights and to influence African Governments resource priorities.
The regional conference on the rights of girls and young women will bring together 15 countries from East, Southern and West Africa to investigate the situation of AGYW in Africa given the impact of COVID-19.
The intended goal is to raise awareness on the need for deliberate and strong resource allocation on adolescent girls and young women as the world is rebuilding from the ruins of Covid-19, with a special focus on the African States.
The conference is held when in most African countries, education has been greatly affected by the pandemic and even before the outbreak, a significant number of children was already out of school.
There have also been cases of early and forced marriages, genital mutilation and other forms of GBV.
The Canadian Ambassador to Zimbabwe and Angola, High Commissioner-designate to Botswana, Her Excellency Christina Buchan will deliver a keynote speech on the urgent need to invest in AGYW now.
African Ambassadors are expected to share their solidarity messages and their promise to take up the girls’ demands to their governments and to African regional platforms such as the African Union.
The funders of the regional conference include:
- The International Development Research Centre – IDRC,
- Global Fund for Women, Urgent Action Fund Africa,
- African Women Development Fund (AWDF) and Bill Cook Foundation.
This year’s 16 days of Activism theme is, ‘Orange the world: End violence against women now.’
