Africa in Fact
Africa in Fact is Good Governance Africa’s flagship quarterly publication containing contributions from high-profile academics, journalists, researchers and corporate leaders from across the African continent. Each edition is carefully themed to reflect the major challenges of the day and what can feasibly done to confront and address them. The content is highly curated, has a credible pan-African reach, and offers significant advertising opportunity to corporate clients.
Our editorial mission is to provide unique, curated in-depth content on themes as diverse, pertinent and interesting to Africa as the digital revolution, the low-carbon energy transition, liberation movements and informal economies. The publication also provides a platform for a diverse range of pan-African contributors, including GGA’S own in-house researchers, to learn and hone the art of long-form journalism.
ISSUE 63
Editorial: The burden of being female
This edition of Africa in Fact focuses on Africa’s girls, 308 million of them under the age of 18, far too many of whom find themselves at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to accessing health, education, and the other tools that offer the promise of a better life. And while poverty remains a constant factor in the marginalisation of Africa’s girls, the challenges that they face are too often compounded by the mere fact that they were born female. So, while economic deprivation is not...
Let the voices of our young women be heard
October 11 is the United Nations International Day of the Girl Child, a day to commemorate young women and girls globally and highlight the obstacles they face in fulfilling their potential. As part of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) plan of action for people, planet and prosperity, the UN identifies four priorities: social security; education, health and nutrition; gender equality; and youth empowerment. Similarly, the African Union's Agenda 2063 has put in place...
A vicious cycle of injustice
While people trafficking is a global phenomenon that affects virtually every part of the world, it is endemic in Africa, with Africans making up an estimated 9.2 million victims. Of these victims, the majority are children, specifically girls, who are the most vulnerable members of society,...
Child marriages – Until death
Child marriages are a tradition that has existed globally across social classes, religions, and cultures. Historically, European royalty used child marriages as a strategy to secure political alliances, and in sacred texts such as the Qur’an, there is no explicit age limit for marriage. Child...
A vicious cycle of injustice
While people trafficking is a global phenomenon that affects virtually every part of the world, it is endemic in Africa, with Africans making up an estimated 9.2 million victims. Of these victims, the majority are children, specifically girls, who...
Child marriages – Until death
Child marriages are a tradition that has existed globally across social classes, religions, and cultures. Historically, European royalty used child marriages as a strategy to secure political alliances, and in sacred texts such as the Qur’an, there...
Ending FGM: The road to 2030
At 17, Ifrah Ahmed arrived in Dublin, Ireland in 2006, escaping war in Somalia. To support her asylum application, she had to undergo a medical...
Reproductive health: knowledge is power
What do young people in Africa find acceptable when it comes to health and social interventions? This should be a key question of interest for...
The daily grind of dangerous work
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has reported, with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), that in 2020, 160 million children were...
The gender economics of education
Even before Covid-19, sub-Saharan Africa was the region of the world with the most children not in education – with 37 million school-age children...
The curse of sexual terrorism
UN Women estimates that 15 million adolescent girls worldwide have experienced forced sex. In Nigeria alone a 2014 national survey found that one in...
South Africa: when a blessing is a curse
Statutory rape has swept South Africa over the past five years as evidenced by the number of girls aged 10 to 14 years giving birth at public health...
The high cost of having a period
For most rural African girls, menstruation presents a dilemma: either attend lessons and face embarrassment, coupled with self-discrimination, or...
Pregnant and in uniform
Education re-entry or continuation policies for pregnant schoolgirls, while still perceived as controversial in some contexts, have gone a long way...
Female leadership through basic education for girls
According to data from Togo’s last demographic census in 2010, women play a vital role in the country’s economy, representing more than 51.4% of the...
Ending FGM: The road to 2030
At 17, Ifrah Ahmed arrived in Dublin, Ireland in 2006, escaping war in Somalia. To support her asylum application, she had to undergo a medical...
Reproductive health: knowledge is power
What do young people in Africa find acceptable when it comes to health and social interventions? This should be a key question of interest for...
The daily grind of dangerous work
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has reported, with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), that in 2020, 160 million children were...
The gender economics of education
Even before Covid-19, sub-Saharan Africa was the region of the world with the most children not in education – with 37 million school-age children...
Girl Friendliness Index Scores of African countries (2020)
Left to fend for themselves
Two teenagers, one from Uganda (16) and the other from Kenya (17), wander aimlessly at night on the side of a deserted road in freezing temperatures in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. They say they are waiting for their “friend”, a well-off man they met a few days ago at a supermarket, who promised...
Girlsʼ sexual health rights threatened by Covid consequences
The social and economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic have created and exacerbated existing risks facing women and girl children in Africa and around the world. Of particular concern are the risks facing girl children. According to a briefing published by Plan International in September...
Left to fend for themselves
Two teenagers, one from Uganda (16) and the other from Kenya (17), wander aimlessly at night on the side of a deserted road in freezing temperatures in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. They say they are waiting for their “friend”, a well-off man they met a few days ago at a supermarket, who promised...
Girlsʼ sexual health rights threatened by Covid consequences
The social and economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic have created and exacerbated existing risks facing women and girl children in Africa and around the world. Of particular concern are the risks facing girl children. According to a briefing published by Plan International in September...
Turning a blind eye in Zimbabwe
The death of a 14-year-old girl, Anna Machaya, while giving birth in 2021, sparked national outrage and put the spotlight on the practice of child marriages within Zimbabwe’s Apostolic church, which also often rejects medicine and hospital treatment. Machaya died while giving birth in July last...
BOOK REVIEWS
Making today’s African girl into tomorrow’s African leader – Book review
African Girl, African Woman – How agile, empowered and tech-savvy females will transform the continent for good by Hynd Bouhia; published by Rawan Publishing (2021) African Girl – African Woman explores the important role of women in science and technology in transforming the continent socially and economically – at the beginning of the fourth industrial and digital revolution (though some technologies have existed for 20 to 30 years). Using an academic and motivational approach, the author Hynd Bouhia demonstrates the need to nurture African girls’ interest in science, technology engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from as early as six years. Furthermore, through detailed examples of successful African female scientists, Bouhia highlights the importance of increasing the participation of girls in STEM subjects from primary to tertiary education. She also emphasises that human capital is a more powerful catalyst for technological...
Turning a blind eye in Zimbabwe
The death of a 14-year-old girl, Anna Machaya, while giving birth in 2021, sparked national outrage and put the spotlight on the practice of child marriages within Zimbabwe’s Apostolic church, which also often rejects medicine and hospital treatment. Machaya died...
Food for thought
Food taboos exist in virtually all societies as beliefs and practices prohibiting the consumption of specific ingredients (or combinations thereof) for religious and/or cultural reasons. Violations unleash strict social sanction and often fear of supernatural...
