Africa’s Children lend their voice to the continent’s future
This year’s summit will focus on education while also addressing the myriad health and safety threats that millions of African children face, especially as these affect their ability to enjoy a quality level of education and success.
The second annual Africa Children’s Summit (ACS) media briefing was hosted on Sunday by the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund at Constitutional Hill under the theme ‘Focusing on Education’.
The child-led summit will host 500 children from over 25 countries across the continent.
This year’s summit will focus on education while also addressing the myriad health and safety threats that millions of African children face, especially as these affect their ability to enjoy a quality level of education and success.
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Dr Linda Ncube-Nkomo, Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund Chief Executive said, “With over half of the population on the continent under the age of 15, the well-being and development of African children cannot be ignored as this is the generation set to be the world’s leading labour force in coming generations.
“As leaders of today, we need to do everything we can to fully understand our children’s needs and involve them in charting a future that ensures the health, safety and optimism of all children.”
The latest World Bank State of Global Education Update found that almost nine out of 10 children in Sub-Saharan Africa cannot read and understand a simple text by the age of 10. Globally, 70% can’t perform this task, up from 57% before the 2020 pandemic.
Children who missed school due to the pandemic failed to reach their scheduled learning targets and in many cases forgot the skills they had previously learned.
This troubling state of affairs has serious knock-on effects, as many children are then exposed to the outside world and risks of abuse, neglect, exploitation and even trafficking.
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According to Ncube-Nkomo the Summit has already been endorsed by and received participation from civil society organisations from across all regions. The African Union, the Africa Children’s Committee, South Africa’s Department of Social Development, a committee of experts and various country government representatives.
“By working with regional mechanisms, the Summit aims to reach hard-to-reach children, including children on the move, those in forced labour, children on the streets and LGBTQIA+ children,” she said.
The 2024 ACS will be the first that will be led by a girl child, Tara Hendricks, a Western Cape child with a disability, emphasising the need to include marginalised groups. 20% of child delegates are children with disabilities.
The entire summit will also be translated into eight languages, including English, Portuguese, French, Kiswahili, Arabic, Sesotho, isiZulu, and South African sign language, to broadly include all regions of the continent, especially North, Central, and West Africa.
“While the 2023 Summit yielded many valuable insights, we realised the need to ensure that the children’s committee would be able to continue with local campaigns in the various participating countries,” Ncube-Nkomo concludes.
