Female first: Giving girls access to education is important for the advancement of women in Africa and uplifting the continent in line with South Africa’s G20 goals, the writer says. Photo: Supplied
Across sub-Saharan Africa, approximately 34 million adolescent girls of secondary school age remain out of school, according to Unesco statistics. This is a travesty in light of the gains girls make in primary school, where they outperform boys in many African countries, and are likely to continue to do so — if they have the chance.
“We clearly see where the injustices begin and how they accumulate through the lives of the most marginalised girls and women,” observes Silvia Montoya, director of the Unesco Institute for Statistics.
“But the data also show girls who do manage to start primary school and make the transition to secondary education tend to outperform boys and continue their studies.”
The Africa Gender Index 2023, which draws together statistics from all 54 African countries, confirms that if girls keep attending school into their teens, they do comparatively well, outnumbering boys in graduations at lower secondary and upper secondary levels across many African countries.
The drive to empower girls, therefore, needs to be sharply focused on the critical turning point at which they transition to secondary school, the point where enrolment and school retention rates for girls begin to fall steeply. Unesco and Unicef data shows, in many countries, only 40 to 50% of girls who finish primary move on to complete lower secondary.
The key reasons for this are early marriage or expectations to help at home; menstruation without adequate sanitation or support; long distances to secondary schools; rising school costs (fees, uniforms, transport); cultural attitudes that undervalue secondary education for girls and safety concerns, including gender-based violence on the way to or at school.
The situation is compounded in fragile and conflict-affected situations, which make up about 40% of countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, even in crises, girls consistently show a strong learning potential when given the opportunity, a 2023 Education Cannot Wait study shows.
The empowerment of girls works hand in hand with the empowerment of women in Africa.
As women achieve gender equality, including literacy, labour force participation, equal pay and life expectancy, empowerment of their younger counterparts is reinforced, because when girls see women working and earning, it normalises education and ambition for girls, reshaping their aspirations.
Employed women, or at least those in control of spending decisions at home, are also subtle agents of wider change. Studies show that women are more likely than men to invest in the health and welfare of their families, in turn helping to overcome societal poverty. Educated, employed women are also more likely to have fewer and healthier children.
The fact that empowering girls and women has this multiplier effect on poverty reduction is a powerful motivator for funding and policy action and global commitments have been significant. The UN Women’s Generation Equality Accountability Report 2024 points to more financial pledges, scaled-up programmes and policy efforts across East and Southern Africa. Yet the momentum must not only continue, but grow exponentially, because despite small wins, gender-based violence, child marriage and traditional gender norms continue to undermine girls’ autonomy. And even when laws or policies are in place, enforcement, social acceptance and institutional capacity often lag.
“Even where progressive legal and policy frameworks exist, weak enforcement mechanisms remain a critical barrier to achieving gender equality in Africa,” says Mariagoretti Swanta Ankut, a Legal Fellow at the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa. Women in Africa have historically contributed immensely to agriculture, trade, family welfare, and even governance, in precolonial societies. However, colonial legacies, post-independence state structures and entrenched patriarchal norms have systematically limited their opportunities in education, political leadership and economic empowerment,” she says.
The second critical turning point for young women is when they complete high school. In sub-Saharan Africa, only 8% are enrolled in higher/tertiary education, according to 2021 World Bank data. In North Africa, the figure is much higher, with Our World in Data recording 2025 female tertiary enrolment in Morocco at 47.5%, 39% in Egypt, 38% in Tunisia and 55.5% in Algeria.
World Bank evidence finds that women’s returns (“returns” are the benefits a person, or society, gets from tertiary education relative to not having it) per year of higher education are consistently higher than men’s and returns are especially high in low-income settings, raising women’s earnings by up to 13%.
Still, the imperative to increase the number of women in tertiary education is not only about their own and their children’s empowerment. Africa’s economies need more tertiary-educated workers to raise productivity, innovate and sustain growth. Expanding higher education is a core lever in this objective.
“Empowering the girl child is not only an imperative of social justice, but also a strategic imperative for driving sustainable development across Africa,” says Dr Mmabatho Mongae, acting head of the Governance Insights and Analytics Programme at Good Governance Africa (GGA), which is hosting its fourth iteration of its Girl Child Dialogues on Friday 10 October, which this year concentrates on opportunities in the hospitality, events and tourism sectors.
Most of the girls attending will be completing high school this year, a window of time in which, depending on the opportunities that arise and the choices made, their lives could radically improve over the long run.
When students see tangible examples, through internships, career fairs and mentorship programmes, such as that of GGA’s Girl Child Dialogues, they are more likely to aspire to careers that fit their potential rather than defaulting to familiar but limited gender roles.
Career path exposure also improves decision-making, aligns education with market realities and enables girls to make significant contributions to society. Suffice to say, a huge part of Africa’s G20 agenda to advance the continent hangs on empowering girls and young women.
Helen Grange is a writer and sub-editor at Good Governance Africa.