Annually, Pan-African Ladies’s Day (PAWD) reminds us of the enduring legacy, resilience, and management of African girls. Nevertheless, as we have a good time, we should additionally confront a lingering fact: far too many pregnant and breastfeeding girls in Africa are nonetheless left behind in HIV prevention efforts. Pregnant and breastfeeding girls will not be merely recipients of care, they’re architects of neighborhood wellbeing, leaders inside households and societies, and central to the intergenerational well being fairness we should pursue.
The theme for PAWD 2025, “Advancing Social and Financial Justice for African Ladies by means of Reparations”, reminds us of the vital want to deal with systemic social and financial inequalities hindering girls’s empowerment and development. PAWD 2025 coincides with the World Breastfeeding Week 2025, themed “Prioritize Breastfeeding: Create Sustainable Assist Methods.” Due to this fact, we’re additionally known as to translate that legacy into concrete motion for the following era, ranging from being pregnant and the earliest days of life. This 12 months, we name for an intentional shift to combine HIV prevention, together with PrEP (Pre-Publicity Prophylaxis), Prevention of Mom-to-Baby Transmission (PMTCT), and Early Toddler Analysis (EID) into the broader maternal and little one well being ecosystem. Doing so shouldn’t be solely scientifically sound; it’s a ethical and human rights crucial, and a step towards redressing historic injustices by means of maternal well being fairness.
A Gendered Lens on HIV Prevention
The African Union Fee (AUC) has lengthy championed the rights of African girls and ladies. AU frameworks, together with the Protocol to the African Constitution on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Ladies in Africa (Maputo Protocol), the AU Technique for Gender Equality and Ladies’s Empowerment, and the Catalytic Framework to Finish AIDS, TB, and Malaria by 2030, ensures equitable and inexpensive entry to HIV prevention and therapy companies. Nonetheless, gender inequality continues to drive HIV vulnerability, particularly amongst adolescent ladies, younger girls, and moms. On a continent the place girls bear the brunt of each unpaid care work and HIV infections, we should place pregnant and breastfeeding girls on the coronary heart of HIV prevention methods.
Pan-African Ladies’s Day is greater than a celebration; it’s a coverage second. We must always use this event to strengthen the hyperlink between reproductive well being, HIV prevention, and gender fairness. In our communities, we’ve got witnessed firsthand methods midwives and frontline staff can rework maternal care when geared up with the instruments, coaching, and belief to take action. We have to reimagine HIV prevention not as a siloed programme, however as a foundational element of respectful, complete, gender-responsive maternal well being.
Breastfeeding as a Well being Justice Subject
The 2025 World Breastfeeding Week theme urges us to prioritise breastfeeding by means of sustainable systems- techniques that should additionally prioritise the well being and HIV standing of the mom and little one. Providing long-acting PrEP like CAB-LA, making certain routine HIV testing throughout antenatal care, and integrating EID into immunisation schedules are important to constructing that system. That is how we be sure that breastfeeding shouldn’t be solely a organic bond, but in addition a protecting, empowering act, freed from concern, stigma, or silence. Sustainable breastfeeding help should embody complete maternal diagnostics and wraparound care. Allow us to additionally be sure that each lady is met with dignity, discretion, and knowledgeable alternative — whether or not by means of entry to long-acting PrEP, well timed testing, or compassionate postpartum help.
A United African Response
We should elevate neighborhood engagement, contain Conventional and Non secular leaders, and help healthcare staff who are sometimes themselves girls and the primary and typically solely line of look after pregnant and breastfeeding girls. Pan-African management on all ranges, from governments to grassroots, should be sure that each mom has entry to life-saving HIV prevention instruments. Remodeling outcomes for moms and infants requires techniques change, constructed on multisectoral partnerships. From ministries to midwives, from labs to legislatures, we should align our investments with our aspirations, for a future the place no lady is left behind.
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The AUC Ladies, Gender, and Youth Directorate and Africa REACH Management Council stand collectively to say: African girls ought to stay, lead, and breastfeed with out the shadow of HIV. As we have a good time Pan-African Ladies’s Day and Breastfeeding Week, allow us to proceed to advocate for and implement insurance policies that result in well being emancipation. Might we renew our collective resolve to make sure that African girls can stay, lead, and nourish the following era, in well being, in dignity, and in freedom from HIV.
Completely happy Pan-African Ladies’s Day!
Ms. Prudence Nonkululeko Ngwenya, H.E. Toyin Saraki, Africa REACH Management Director of the Ladies, Gender, and Youth Directorate, Council Member, and Founder-President of AUC The Wellbeing Basis Africa.
