KHUMO KUMALO | Prosperity and freedom, hand in hand: Africa can’t grow while its girls are left behind

At the G20 Social Summit, it became apparently clear — though said implicitly — that Africa as a collective is failing adolescent girls in every factor that is necessary for an equitable and equal society: education, economic participation and leadership opportunities. This failure hinders the socio-economic development of girls and women across the continent.

As it stands, sub-Saharan Africa is home to about 145-million adolescent girls and will host up to a third of the world’s adolescent girls by 2050, according to the World Bank. Over half of African girls ages 15 to 19 are either out of school, married, or have children. The prospect of growth and a future remains far out of reach.

It is particularly the denial of education to girls in sub-Saharan Africa that not only impacts their current prospects but also their future prospects.

According to Unesco (2022), over 98-million girls of primary and lower secondary school age in sub-Saharan Africa are out of school, limiting their prospects for meaningful employment and entrepreneurship. This means that there is a wealth of ideas, innovations and industries that go untapped and unexplored absent the girl entrepreneur.

According to UN Women (2022), every additional year of schooling for a girl can increase her future earnings by up to 20%. There is an evident underinvestment that occurs with girls on the continent of Africa, which affects them directly and hinders the development of the continent as a whole.

Furthermore, there is evident disparity in even the opportunity to access tertiary education for women in sub-Saharan Africa. Only 8% are enrolled in higher or tertiary education, according to 2021 World Bank data. Less than one in 10 women are given the opportunity for social mobility through employment and are denied opportunities that are almost more certain for males.

Lack of investment impacts spaces such as tertiary education and allows these spaces to be dominated by men — not for the fact that they are better, but because they have a better pathway to success.

According to The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, women make up only 22% of Africa’s STEM workforce, indicating a key imbalance in allocation of resources and prospects for girls on the continent who are displaced due to socio-economic circumstances.

The gains that are granted to girls if there was a deeper focus on ensuring the participation of women in labour and the economy would grow the economy and increase employment across the country.

The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that closing the gender gap in labour participation could add $316bn to Africa’s GDP by 2025. Investment in girls’ economic participation and upliftment would be a key area and place of growth.

The reality of the situation is that if Africa is to move forward and to rewire and rethink what the future holds for an expanding youth population and child population, development cannot occur absent a strong focus and importance on girls on the continent.

Though there has been progress, it has been very minimal and highlights a great deal of neglect on account of African governments and society as a whole. From 1990 to 2016, enrolment has only risen a mere 5% from 60% to 65%, according to UN Generation 2030 Africa 2.0. This shows progress, but not at the rate necessary to turn the prospects of children’s lives around today.

Accompanied by an environment that actively denies girls the prospects of even charting a future, they continue to suffer at the expense of social and cultural practices. About 35% of women aged between 20–24 were married before turning 18 — denied the prospect of choosing their own future and charting an independent course.

Africa will forever undercut its prospects of development if it is not happening in all corners, for everyone.

The extent of physical abuse that ravages the continent further affects the girls’ prospects of fulfilling a life full of dignity and humanity. More than 79-million girls and women — more than 1 in 5 — across sub-Saharan Africa have experienced rape or sexual assault before turning 18, according to Unicef’s latest estimates.

This denies so many the experience of a suitable childhood, a safe learning environment and a life absent trauma. Their future will not progress unless society introspects and solves many of the major crises that face girl children.

The result of such horrors and actions is not only momentary but also long-term. With there being an estimated 3,100 HIV infections among adolescent girls and young women aged 15–24, there are great psychological and physical harms that girls face that deny them faith in a future, faith in democracy, if the response from the continent is not adequate and urgent.

The solution ought to be multifaceted and layered to resolve all these elements of society. The recent Women For Change protest exposed one aspect of how the government is failing girls and women in South Africa. That failure runs far deeper and requires a plan that not only restores dignity and humanity for all women but thinks truly about how South Africa can be a far more equitable country for all — then spread that same message not only in local corridors but across the continent.

Africa will forever undercut its prospects of development if it is not happening in all corners, for everyone. The World Bank estimates that every dollar invested in adolescent girls’ empowerment in Africa between now and 2040 could generate gains of potentially $2.4-trillion. Currently, in an environment where economic uncertainty hounds many countries in Africa, the answer is in their people — but most importantly in their girls.

A continent that once had news of fighting the oppressor together, celebrating the fruits of liberation and struggle, now needs to liberate their very own. Without them, there is a worse future. An opportunity missed. An entrepreneur’s dream is gone. But most importantly, a child’s future is lost because of negligence and underinvestment in their development.

Progress in Africa cannot be that of the Western world, where it is better for the select few born with the specific and necessary characteristics to be deemed worthy of a chance, worthy of resources, and worthy of a future. It must be for everyone — with everyone together.

As Malala Yousafzai put it, “We cannot succeed when half of us are held back.” Africa must do better now and in the future to succeed together, whole as one. For without the empowerment of girls, there will never be the empowerment of Africa.