CALL TO ACTION: Girls’ education during the COVID-19 pandemic

This Call to Action was delivered by Vera Addo (Ghana) at the 2022 ECOSOC Youth Forum on behalf of the Africa Youth Partnership to Advocate an Equitable Recovery from the Global COVID-19 Pandemic.

We know that when it comes to the effects of the disruptions to education systems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, girls have been hardest hit. They are the least likely to return to school, and are also most vulnerable to dropping out. Worse of all, they face an increased risk of early marriage and adolescent pregnancy during times of disruption in their education.

In Ghana, the Ministry of Health reported 109,865 teenage pregnancies in 2020. A study by Africa Education Watch also recorded that 20% of Ghanaian schools recorded between one and three girls not returning to school due to teenage pregnancy and migration.

As we launch the Africa Youth Partnership;

• We call on governments and development partners in Africa to ensure continued learning through distance education during times of disruption, to continually engage and educate all girls and ease their return upon reopening of schools;

• We call on African governments to create an enabling environment for inclusive education by eliminating policies and practices that expel pregnant girls and establishing continuation policies and strategies to facilitate the continued education of pregnant girls and adolescent mothers;

• We also call on governments and development partners in Africa to deliver gender-transformative teacher training and education to create discrimination-free classroom environments, including sexual and reproductive health education to help reduce teenage pregnancy, and to facilitate accelerated learning programmes for adolescent mothers returning to school;

• We further call on governments and development partners to fully finance education to protect education budgets from potential cuts and to facilitate supportive measures for pregnant girls and adolescent mothers to continue their education, and recover education systems from the COVID-19 crisis.

Thank you.