Top news Begins at home: 72% of African women reported worrying about not having enough food to eat in the past 30 days, according to a major new survey from Facebook’s Data for Good program. 53% of women (35% of men) felt that their current financial situation does not fully cover their own expenses. Gender vulnerabilities: 80% of the countries where women are most vulnerable to COVID-19 are in Africa. So says new research from DATA2x and Open Data Watch. Women...
Facts from our Africa COVID-19 Tracker 21.3 million people require humanitarian aid. 1.8 million people are internally displaced. 792,000 refugees are seeking safety. Ranked 84th of 195 countries for capability to prevent and mitigate epidemics. A socioeconomic crisis As Africa braces for the spread of the latest Ebola outbreak, the COVID-19 pandemic has already placed Ethiopia in an acute crisis. COVID-19 is causing a loss of income for many families who have been simultaneously affected by irregular rainfalls and outbreaks of...
Maryjacob Okwuosa, Mukhtar H. Modibbo are Youth Leaders for Global Partnership for Education. They raise awareness of the barriers to education and aim to increase the ambition of leaders for financing education and development.  The impact of COVID in Nigeria  The advent of the COVID pandemic has not only revealed the poor state of infrastructure and facilities in the health sector of Nigeria but also revealed the reality of the dilapidation and poor funding of the education sector. Aside from the...
Megan Gieske is a storyteller and photographer based in Cape Town, South Africa. In South Africa, women are at risk. South Africa has one of the highest rates of violence against women and girls in the world, and a femicide rate that is five times the global average, with an estimated 12.1 in 100,000 victims each year. South Africa’s gender-based violence statistics (GBV) are equal to a country at war. South Africa held its yearly 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence,...
Francis Musyoka, a ONE EA Champion in Kenya, is sharing why empowering girls in Kilifi County, Kenya is important and the steps local leaders can take to do so. The issue of gender equality and women’s empowerment has been a top agenda for countries and leaders across the globe. Whilst gender inequality is widespread, organizations such as ONE are fighting to ensure that the world understands the importance of promoting the girl-child in the socio-economic world and take action. Women and...
Megan Gieske is a storyteller and photographer based in Cape Town, South Africa. On Steve Biko Street, taxi horns blare and horse carts trot down Gugulethu’s busy main road. But over a high wall, a woman has grown an oasis of green in the highly-developed, urban landscape of Gugulethu, where almost 100,000 share just 6.42²km (or 2.5² miles) of land. It’s here in Gugulethu where Nomonde Kweza, or “Mama Nomonde,” is reclaiming her agricultural heritage, and teaching her community to support...
Falling on 11 October, International Day of the Girl Child is a United Nations day that brings attention to “girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world.” Empowering young girls early in life can give them the “potential to change the world — both as the empowered girls of today and as tomorrow’s workers, mothers, entrepreneurs, mentors, household heads, and political leaders.” However, as we’ve seen with previous health crises, COVID-19’s lingering economic and social impacts on...
Megan Gieske is a storyteller and photographer based in Cape Town, South Africa. Ntombi Mbinda gestures around the kitchen in her home; it’s a room only of women. One woman bends over a pot, stirring the day’s rice. Another cuts vegetables, their headwraps shine brilliantly in the slanting light of the afternoon sun. The women — Theodora, Lorna, Phindiwe, Nobuntu, and Noxolo — arrive every weekday at 8:30am to begin cooking from Ntombi’s home. Outside the kitchen, a garden Ntombi planted...
Dr. Joannie Bewa is a public health researcher and women and girls activist. We interviewed her as part of our #PassTheMic series. Here’s some of what she had to say. When it comes to women and girls during COVID-19 there are a lot of challenges, related to both health and non-health issues. I’m seeing many things through a gender perspective, which is lacking on several levels. The first thing lacking is the acknowledgement that women are a large part of the...
Aya Chebbi is an activist and AU Youth Envoy. We interviewed her as part of our #PassTheMic campaign. Here’s some of what she had to say. The COVID-19 pandemic is taking over the world, causing a worldwide impact on education. School and university closures are disrupting the education of over 1.53 billion learners, 743 million of whom are girls. School and university students around the world have had to adapt to e-learning. Lockdowns, quarantines, curfews, isolation, and social distancing that you...