She Leads Africa Summit 2025 Opens in Nairobi, Pushing Girls’ and Young Women’s Leadership to the Policy Table

The She Leads Africa Summit 2025 is underway in Nairobi, running 11 to 14 August under the theme “Sustaining Girls and Young Women Leadership in Key Decision-Making Spaces in Africa.” The convening is organised by the Horn of Africa Youth Network and Terre des Hommes Netherlands, in collaboration with Pan African She Leads Consortium partners Plan International AULO, Defence for Children, ECPAT Netherlands, FEMNET, and GIMAC. It is the first regional civil society led summit convened for and by Girls and Young Women.

Why this moment matters

Africa’s youth population is significant, with East Africa alone home to more than 116 million people under 35. Yet policy spaces across the region still underrepresent younger voices, particularly girls and young women. With the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals deadline approaching, the summit focuses on protecting gains and ensuring meaningful participation for girls and young women in governance and development.

This push builds on a growing pipeline of skills and leadership programmes. Recent initiatives such as the Airtel Africa Foundation’s Tech For Her programme are training young women in Linux administration, cybersecurity, and data analytics, which can translate into stronger participation in digital policy conversations. Hands-on STEM exposure is also expanding through initiatives like the UNESCO supported CogLabs workshop in Nairobi, which showed how mobile-first tools can lower barriers to robotics and AI learning. On the entrepreneurship and employment side, efforts such as Standard Chartered’s Women in Tech programme and targeted mentorship like the Women in Cyber Mentorship Programme are creating clearer pathways from skills to leadership.

What the summit aims to deliver

Organisers frame the meeting as both a culmination of the five year She Leads programme [2021 to 2025] and a launchpad for sustained action. By the close of proceedings, participants aim to secure tangible policy commitments from regional and continental institutions that embed Girls’ and Young Women’s leadership across key decision making spaces. The summit also intends to strengthen intergenerational and cross border feminist networks, and to produce a Pan African roadmap for a just, inclusive, and gender equal post 2030 agenda.

Linnet Awor, Technical Expert, Lobby and Advocacy at Terre des Hommes Netherlands, said the work is about moving beyond consultation to shared power. “We need to ensure Girls and Young Women continue to lead with impact in all spheres of life, now and in the future. Through collaborative advocacy, the Summit will strengthen feminist and youth led movements, encouraging regional commitments to ensure Girls and Young Women are engaged meaningfully in governance and development.”

Who is behind She Leads

She Leads is a five year joint programme aiming to advance Girls’ and Young Women’s rights to meaningful participation and engagement in regional decision making spaces in Africa. It is implemented by Plan International Netherlands, FEMNET, and Terre des Hommes Netherlands, in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, and operates across East Africa, West Africa, and the Middle East. Learn more via Terre des Hommes Netherlands.