This year’s theme, “For All Women and Girls: Rights. Justice. Action.”, is both a rallying call and a reminder that commitments must translate into concrete change in the lives of women and girls across Africa.

While some progress has been made, deep structural inequalities remain. African women continue to face the combined impact of the climate crisis, violent conflicts, rising inflation, illicit financial flows, and shrinking civic space. Despite bearing the heaviest social and economic burdens, women remain underrepresented in decision-making spaces.
For the labour movement, justice for African women means living free from violence, exploitation, and insecurity. Across the continent, conflicts and political instability continue to expose women and girls to gender-based violence, displacement, and the loss of livelihoods.

Economic justice is central to gender equality. Inflation, rising food prices, and cuts to public services continue to disproportionately affect women workers, particularly those in informal and precarious employment.

ITUC-Africa reiterates its call for universal access to maternity protection, childcare, healthcare, and income security in old age. Governments must also address debt overhang and illicit financial flows that deprive Africa of critical resources needed to fund social protection and essential public services.

Through its Gender Transformative Agenda, ITUC-Africa and its affiliates are working to dismantle structural barriers to gender equality and to advance decent work for women across all sectors.

ITUC-Africa therefore calls on governments, employers, and all stakeholders to:
• Consciously work to end violent hostilities by embracing dialogue and readiness to use justice to promote peace.
• Enact and enforce equal pay legislation to close the gender wage gap and ramp up skills development opportunities for more women to enter the formal labour market.
• Expand universal social protection, including maternity benefits, childcare, and healthcare.
• Ratify and implement ILO Convention 190 and the AU Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls.
• Combat debt burdens and illicit financial flows and invest recovered resources in public services.
• Ensure meaningful representation of women in economic, political, and peacebuilding processes.
• Recognize and invest in the care economy.

ITUC-Africa stands in solidarity with all women and girls across Africa and reaffirms its commitment to building a just, equal, and dignified world of work.

Long Live Our Women!

Happy International Women’s Day!

Issued from Lome, Togo on the 7th of March 2026

Akhator Joel ODIGIE
General Secretary, ITUC-AFRICA.