Pan-African Women’s Day arrives at a time of profound contradiction for our continent. Across Africa, women and girls are feeding nations, sustaining families, defending human rights, responding to climate disasters, building businesses, leading social movements and shaping peace processes. They are the backbone of our economies, the custodians of our communities and the driving force behind Africa’s resilience. Yet, despite their immense contributions, they continue to bear the greatest burden of inequality, exclusion and injustice.

Every day, millions of African women shoulder the invisible care economy that keeps our societies functioning, spending significantly more time on unpaid care and domestic work than men. Climate change is deepening existing inequalities, threatening livelihoods, food security and access to water while placing even greater burdens on women and girls. Without urgent action, an estimated 158 million more women and girls could be pushed into extreme poverty by 2050, with nearly half living in Sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, gender-based violence continues to deny women and girls their safety and dignity, while conflict, shrinking civic space, attacks on sexual and reproductive health and rights, and persistent economic exclusion continue to erode hard-won gains for gender equality. These realities are neither natural nor inevitable. They are the result of systems that continue to undervalue women’s labour, silence their voices and exclude them from decisions that shape their lives. Yet across the continent, African feminist movements continue to demonstrate that another future is possible. From women defending land and natural resources to young feminists reclaiming digital spaces, from peacebuilders resolving conflict to climate justice advocates demanding accountability,
African women are organising, resisting and leading transformative change every day. It is against this backdrop that FEMNET joins African women, feminist movements, partners and allies across the continent and the diaspora in commemorating Pan-African Women’s Day. We honour the founding of the Pan-African Women’s Organization (PAWO) in 1962 and celebrate generations of African women whose courage, resilience and collective action have shaped our continent’s struggles for liberation, justice, equality and self-determination. Their legacy reminds us that Pan-African Women’s Day is not only a celebration of women’s achievements, but also a reaffirmation of our collective responsibility to dismantle the structural barriers that continue to hold back Africa’s full potential.

As we mark this day, FEMNET calls on African governments, the African Union, Regional Economic Communities, development partners and the private sector to move beyond commitments and invest in the transformative change that African women and girls deserve. This means fully implementing and financing the Maputo Protocol, Agenda 2063 and other commitments to gender equality; protecting civic space; safeguarding sexual and reproductive health and rights; ending all forms of gender-based violence; advancing economic, climate and social justice; and ensuring that women and girls—particularly young women, women with disabilities, rural women and other historically excluded groups—are meaningfully represented in every space where decisions about our continent’s future are made. Africa cannot realise its full potential while half of its population continues to face systemic barriers to equality, opportunity and justice.

We also call for bold, sustained investment in African feminist movements and women-led organisations that continue to defend rights, influence policy and build more just, inclusive and resilient societies despite persistent underfunding and shrinking civic space. As FEMNET, we remain steadfast in our commitment to strengthening collective feminist power, amplifying African women’s voices and advancing a future where equality, justice, care and dignity are lived realities for every woman and girl. The future of our continent depends on the choices we make today. Let us choose courage over complacency, action over rhetoric and solidarity over silence. Together, we can build the Africa envisioned by the women who came before us—an Africa where every woman and girl is free to lead, thrive and shape the future she deserves.