By Africa.com | Created at 2026-06-15 15:56:58 | Updated at 2026-06-15 22:52:35
6 hours ago
As global aid to education declines, locally led programmes in Kenya and Uganda are proving that supporting young women into work and enterprise delivers measurable economic returns.
By Dr Mwende Munuve
On 16 June, Africa will mark the Day of the African Child, honouring the students of Soweto who were killed in 1976 for demanding the right to learn. But if this day is to mean anything, it cannot end with remembrance. It must compel action and investment in the futures of Africa’s children, especially its girls. It must prompt a practical question: who will ensure that Africa’s children, especially girls, are supported not only in school, but in the years that determine whether they earn, lead and thrive?
That question is becoming more urgent as global aid comes under pressure, putting education systems more broadly under strain and placing particular pressure on programmes that help girls stay in school and move safely into adulthood.
UNESCO warns that aid to education is falling fast and could decline by more than 25% by 2027. UNICEF has also reported that support for girls’ education has shrunk. In countries where poverty, insecurity, child marriage and care burdens already push girls out of school, less funding means fewer bursaries, weaker support and fewer routes back into learning or training. Together, these pressures threaten the fragile support systems that enable girls to learn, earn and contribute to their families and communities.
As external funding becomes less predictable, Africa has a chance to invest more deliberately in girls’ futures while strengthening the partnerships that help proven local models grow.
Africa is entering the largest youth wave in its history. By 2050, the continent will be home to 850 million young people. Yet only around three million formal jobs are created each year for the 10 to 12 million entering the workforce.
Governments cannot employ their way out of this, and large companies will not absorb the pressure alone.
If Africa wants jobs, income and stability, it has to invest in entrepreneurship and the locally owned and operated small businesses that drive communities forward.
Small and medium-sized enterprises already make up most businesses across the continent and account for much of its non-agricultural employment. If Africa is to turn its youth boom into a demographic dividend rather than a crisis, it must back the next generation of entrepreneurs. Young women cannot remain an afterthought in that effort.
Yet support for girls often weakens once schooling ends. That is where a major opportunity is still being lost.
Locally led organisations are helping to close that gap.
Locally Led Programmes Are Closing the Gap
In Kenya’s West Pokot County, the Global Give Back Circle’s HER Lab programme is showing what targeted support can do, helping young women transition from education into dignified livelihoods through digital literacy, entrepreneurship training, mentorship, financial literacy and seed capital.
One participant, 23-year-old Phylis Yoto, left school with no clear path ahead. A young mother with limited opportunities, she joined HER Lab and gained skills in digital literacy, business planning and agriculture. She now earns an income from poultry farming while studying hairdressing and preparing to open her own business.
Since 2013, HER Lab has supported more than 800 rural young women, with 351 currently enrolled in Kajiado and a further 182 recently enrolled in West Pokot. Over the next three years, Global Give Back Circle and its partners, including the Mastercard Foundation, aim to help 1,400 more young women into work or enterprise. The results from the pilot are already notable: 74% of graduates have moved into employment, entrepreneurship or further study, unemployment among participants has fallen sharply, and within a year, they had collectively saved more than KES 1.7 million through a Village Savings and Loans Association. Global Give Back Circle works through grassroots partners Perur Rays of Hope in West Pokot and HELGA in Kajiado to ensure the programme remains locally grounded.
This is not only about income. It is about power, choice and self-reliance. It is about whether young women can shape their own futures or remain locked out of them.
In Uganda, Educate! has helped thousands of young people build businesses and gain practical skills for work. The returns are hard to ignore: participants in its livelihood bootcamps earned 66% more income and were more than twice as likely to own a business, while girls in its school-based model saw a 244% increase in income, were 91% more likely to own a business and recorded a 113% increase in employment.
The evidence is clear: investing in girls is not a marginal social intervention, but a serious economic choice.
The challenge is no longer identifying what works.
The challenge is mobilising the funding needed to take these solutions to scale.
Africa has capital, institutions and examples that work. What matters now is whether they are matched by investment.
The Evidence Is Clear
Investing in girls is not only a moral imperative; it is sound transformative economic policy.
No continent can prosper while sidelining half its young population. Governments must protect funding for girls’ education, entrepreneurship, mentorship and financial inclusion. Businesses must treat young women as future employees, suppliers and innovators. Investors should recognise that few long-term bets are stronger than a young woman with skills, capital and opportunity.
The students of Soweto did not march to be remembered once a year. They marched for dignity, opportunity and self-determination.
The most honest way to honour them now is not with speeches, but with investment.
On 16 June, Africa should make a serious commitment: not just to get its daughters into school, but to help them move from education into work, enterprise and independence, backed by stronger domestic investment and sustained partnership.
Now is the time to act.
Dr Mwende Munuve is a development specialist in girls’ and women’s economic empowerment, with more than 20 years of experience leading programmes across Africa. As Chief of Programs at Global Give Back Circle, she leads initiatives that help adolescent girls and young women transition into dignified work, entrepreneurship and economic independence.
