The Girl Generation at the African Girls' Summit

The Summit, which took place in November, was opened by the president of Zambia Edgar Lungu who called on other African leaders to provide political leadership so that we can end child marriage now.

With friends and partners from across the movement to #endFGM, our The Girl Generation programme co-hosted a side event focused on the integration of FGM with the movement to end child marriage. It was great to hear that the Summit took the recommendations seriously. The Summit also noted the need to integrate FGM in the early child marriage agenda as neglecting FGM in this debate would be a critical mistake. As FGM and child marriage share many of the same root causes and social drivers, the African Union vowed to include FGM in this dialogue. This is an important result for the movement to #endFGM.

The power of youth was also recognised in the discussion and there was unanimous agreement that youth engagement is the critical innovation needed to end child marriage and FGM. Read the latest blog by youth ambassador Amina Allily who attended the Summit on behalf of The Girl Generation – adding her voice as a youth activist on various panels and discussions.