Background
The Africa Gender and Child Statistics Forum - is the continent’s premier annual platform for advancing the production, harmonization and use of gender and child related statistics to inform policy, accountability and action to realize the rights of all children and women and to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. Established under the auspices of the Statistical Commission for Africa through the African Group on Gender Statistics, the Africa Expert Group on child and adolescents related statistics as well the Sub-group on Gender of the Specialized technical group 8 of the second Africa Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa - that focuses on Demography, Migration, Health, Human Development, Social Protection and Gender. The forum supports the implementation of the Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa and the umbrella African Programme on Gender Statistics.
The 2026 forum follows a series of seven annual gender statistics Forums. The 2026 forum is being convened at a time when global and regional commitments to the rights of children, women, and marginalized groups face persistent and emerging challenges. Thirty years after the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and more than a decade into the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, Agenda 2063 and agenda 2040 for children, progress remains uneven—particularly around women’s and children’s rights under the law, access to justice, protection and services. The 2026 Forum aligns with the International Women’s Day theme (with the inclusion of children) and the need for the necessary data to support it. The theme therefore is:
“Statistics that Matter: Advancing Rights, Justice, and Opportunities for all”.
Aim of the Forum
The overall aim of the 2026 forum is to strengthen the availability, quality, use and coordination of gender and child statistics in Africa to support rights-based, justice-focused and inclusive action for all women, girls and boys.
The specific objectives of 2026 forum are to:
- Assess progress and gaps in the production and use of gender and child statistics related to women’s and girls’ and boys’ rights, justice and legal equality in Africa.
- Strengthen measurement frameworks on women’s legal rights, access to justice, enforcement of laws, and protection of boys and girls from discrimination and violence.
- Promote inclusive gender and child data systems that adequately capture the realities of marginalized and excluded groups of women, girls and boys.
- Showcase innovative methodologies and data sources, including administrative data, justice sector data, mixed-methods approaches and citizen-generated data as well as studies on the intersection between women and children’s statistics and intergenerational impacts.
- Enhance dialogue between users and producers of gender and child statistics to ensure data responds to policy, accountability and reform needs.
- Contribute African perspectives to global gender and child statistics processes and forums, including inter-agency and expert group deliberations.
- Strengthen coordination and partnerships under the African Programme on Gender Statistics and the African Group on Gender Statistics.
- Child sensitive and gender responsive administrative data systems across social networks.
See concept note for additional information.
To attend virtually register at the link below:
