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”.