Today, we stand at a pivotal moment in our continental journey as we commemorate Pan African Women's Day and celebrate the 63rd anniversary of the Pan African Women's Organisation. This dual celebration connects us to the very foundations of our struggle for liberation, reminding us that African women have always been architects of change, builders of nations, and champions of justice.

The African Union's theme for 2025, "Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations," finds its perfect alignment with this year's Pan African Women's Day theme, "Advancing Social and Economic Justice for African Women through Reparations." This convergence of themes speaks to the fundamental truth that the liberation of Africa and its people cannot be achieved without the full empowerment and recognition of African women's contributions and sacrifices.

The Enduring Legacy of PAWO and Pan African Women's Day
Sixty-three years ago, visionary women gathered in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to establish what would become the Pan African Women's Organisation (PAWO). They understood then what remains true today: that women's liberation and Africa's liberation are inseparable struggles. PAWO emerged not as an afterthought to independence movements but as their vanguard, established a full year before the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) itself.

The founding mothers of PAWO recognized that colonialism and patriarchy were intertwined systems of oppression that required coordinated continental resistance. They created the first platform for African women to unite across borders, linguistic divisions, and ideological differences. Their vision transcended the immediate goal of political independence to encompass the complete transformation of African societies.

Today, PAWO's relevance extends far beyond its historical significance. As Africa's oldest women's organization and a specialized agency of the African Union, it represents the institutional memory of our struggles and the living embodiment of Pan Africanism. 

The choice of July 31st as Pan African Women's Day anchors our annual reflection in the concrete historical moment when African women declared their collective agency and refused to accept marginalization in the struggle for freedom. This date reminds us that women's efforts predate and inform our work, challenging us to recognize women not as beneficiaries of liberation but as its primary architects.

Alignment with the AU 2025 Theme and Reparative Justice

The 2025 AU theme, "Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations," provides the overarching framework for understanding why advancing social and economic justice for African women through reparations is both historically necessary and strategically essential. The historical legacies of slave trade, colonialism, apartheid, and ongoing neocolonial exploitation have had differentiated and compounded impacts on African women.

Women bore the triple burden of racial, economic, and gender oppression under these systems. They were subjected to violence as a tool of domination, excluded from educational opportunities, denied property rights, and forced into exploitative labor arrangements that persist in modified forms today. The extraction of Africa's wealth, from human beings to natural resources, systematically undermined the social and economic structures that had previously provided women with meaningful roles and protections.

Reparative justice for African women, therefore, requires more than acknowledgment of historical wrongs. Economic justice requires not just access to employment but transformation of labour markets and the restructuring of economic systems that continue to marginalize women, the redistribution of resources, opportunities, and the recognition of women's unpaid contributions to household and community survival. It requires access to productive resources including land, credit, technology, and markets, as well as recognition and support for women's enterprises in both the formal and informal sectors. Social justice requires addressing the multiple forms of violence that women face, from domestic violence to harmful traditional practices and structural violence embedded in discriminatory laws and policies. It requires ensuring access to quality education, healthcare, and other essential services, and women's meaningful participation in decision-making at all levels of society. This understanding aligns perfectly with our continental commitment to transformative gender equality as outlined in Agenda 2063.

The African Union’s expansive normative instruments provide the comprehensive framework for transformative change. Through the African Women's Decade on Financial and Economic Inclusion 2020-2030, we are mobilizing resources and creating opportunities for women's economic empowerment on an unprecedented scale. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) offers unprecedented opportunities for women entrepreneurs through gender-responsive implementation to ensure that women benefit equitably from expanded trade opportunities. The Women and Youth Financial and Economic Inclusion (WYFEI) Initiative, which aims to raise $100 billion by 2030 to benefit 10 million women and youth across the continent, recognizes that economic justice requires both access to resources and the transformation of the systems that have historically excluded women. 

Our continued implementation of the Maputo Protocol advances women's rights across multiple domains, from reproductive health to property ownership. As at July 2025, 46 out of 55 African Union Member States have ratified the Maputo Protocol on Women’s Rights. I take this opportunity to call for its universal ratification, domestication and full implementation. The recent adoption of the African Union Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls represents our determination to address one of the most persistent barriers to women's full participation in society. The newly adopted Convention has, to date, been signed by six Member States. We look forward to attaining the required fifteen (15) ratifications to enable its timely entry into force.

A Vision for Transformative Change
As we commemorate this significant anniversary, we envision an Africa where women and girls enjoy full equality, dignity, and opportunity. This vision requires acknowledging that current inequalities are not natural or inevitable but result from specific historical processes and ongoing structural arrangements that can be changed. Transformative change means moving beyond merely adding women to existing systems, toward fundamentally restructuring those systems to be more just, inclusive, and sustainable. 

Today, we call upon all stakeholders to join us in advancing reparative justice for African women, recognizing this not only as a moral duty but as a strategic necessity for the realization of Africa’s development agenda and the vision of an integrated, prosperous, and peaceful continent. We urge our Member States to accelerate the domestication and implementation of all continental commitments on gender equality, backed by dedicated budgets and the establishment of institutions and policies that are fully responsive to the needs and rights of women and girls. 

Conclusion
The legacy of PAWO's founding mothers calls us to be bold, visionary, and uncompromising in our pursuit of justice. They showed us that African women can unite across divisions to challenge systems of oppression and to build inclusive alternatives rooted in equality and dignity. We honor their legacy by continuing their work with the same courage, determination, and hope that characterized their efforts.

As we look toward the future, we remain committed to the vision of an Africa where every woman and girl can realize her full potential, contribute to her community's development, and live with dignity and security. This is both our gift to the founding mothers of PAWO and our promise to future generations of African women.

The struggle continues, and together, we shall overcome.