Today, the African Union joins the global community in commemorating the “International Day of the Girl Child” under the powerful theme: “The girl I am, the change I lead: Girls on the frontlines of crisis.” This theme calls us to recognise not only the disproportionate burdens girls face in times of conflict, displacement and climate disaster, but also the extraordinary leadership they demonstrate in shaping solutions.

Across Africa, girls are rising. They are leading movements for education, climate justice, digital inclusion and peacebuilding. They are mobilising communities, challenging harmful norms and demanding a future where their rights are protected and their voices heard. We must not only celebrate their courage, we must also invest in their power.

Yet, we know the challenges remain stark. In fragile settings, girls are nearly twice as likely to be out of school. Rates of child marriage, sexual violence, online sexual exploitation and maternal mortality soar during crises. Girls are often excluded from decisions that shape their lives. These injustices are not inevitable, they are preventable.

The African continent has the highest number of child brides relative to the population and continues to record slowest progress in ending child marriage. Globally, 19 per cent of women aged between 20 and 24 were married before age 18, compared to 31 per cent in Africa, making it the region with the highest prevalence of child marriage.

A confluence of threats such as climate-induced crises; digital exclusion, lack of safety’ in conflicts and humanitarian crises, demand our urgent and undivided attention. These crises function as threat multipliers to harmful practices, more broadly and child marriages, more specifically, with their severity exacerbated by a girl's position at the intersection of multiple deprivations. It is the convergence of geographical location of the girls e.g. rural and urban, socio-economic status, cultural context and identity, all of which transform a generalised risk into a deeply personal and acute vulnerability, necessitating a rejection of one-size-fits-all solutions.

In our ambition to secure Africa’s future, we must dismantle the barriers to ending harmful practices with precision and urgency. The following three imperatives demand our immediate commitment:

First, enact legislation and enforce integrated protective policies that empower girls with skills, information, services and an enabling family and community environment so that all girls can realise their full potential, chart their own future and propel transformative change. National strategies must explicitly connect climate resilience with girls’ education, embed digital safety and mental health support in schools and communities, ensuring services are accessible to all girls, especially the most underserved and hard to reach in rural areas and urban informal settlements.

Second, prioritise domestic resource mobilisation to fund ending harmful practices activities.  Governments must ring-fence national budgets for girl-centred programmes, social protection, school retention initiatives and child protection services. True sustainability is built on our own strategic investment, not external aid. Years of experience has proven this fact, enforced by recent global financial landscape.

Third, institutionalise the voices of girls in all decisions affecting their lives. There cannot be a conversation about girls without girls. From local councils to national parliaments, girls must shape the policies designed to protect and empower them. Their lived experience is the most critical metric of our success.

As the African Union, we reaffirm our commitment to the rights, dignity and leadership of every girl child. Through Agenda 2063 and the Continental Education Strategy, we are working to eliminate barriers to girls’ empowerment. We call on Member States, civil society and the private sector to:

• Protect girls from violence, exploitation and harmful practices;
• Ensure access to quality education, health care and digital tools;
• Include girls in decision-making at all levels, including continental summits; and
• Fund girl-led initiatives and amplify their voices in policy spaces.

Our daughters are Africa’s most precious resource. On this day, and every day, let us double down our efforts to building a continent where every girl is educated, healthy, safe and empowered to lead the continent towards the prosperous, inclusive, resilient and united Africa envisioned by Agenda 2063. Let us recognise girls not only as survivors of crisis, but as architects of change. Let us build a continent where every girl can thrive, lead and shape the future she deserves.

On this International Day of the Girl Child, we stand with Africa’s girls. We see them. We hear them. We believe in them.

I thank you.