25/05/2026
Happy Africa Day
This year’s theme “Assuring Sustainable Water Availability and Safe Sanitation Systems to Achieve the Goals of Agenda 2063.” comes at a critical moment where a lot of people still lack access to safe water and sanitation, undermining health, dignity, livelihoods, climate resilience, and sustainable development. For young women and women, these challenges are even more pronounced.
Women and girls continue to carry the burden of water insecurity walking long distances to fetch water, waking up in the early hours of the morning to queue for water, facing risks of violence and harassment, and carrying unpaid care responsibilities caused by failing infrastructure and inadequate public services.
The African Union’s declaration of 2026 as the Year of Water and Sanitation elevates these issues as urgent continental priorities and recognizes water and sanitation as critical enablers of economic transformation, public health, food security, peace, industrialization, and climate resilience. It also reinforces Africa’s commitment to Agenda 2063, particularly Aspiration 1: “A Prosperous Africa Based on Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development,”
At IYWD we believe that achieving these aspirations requires centering the voices, leadership, and lived realities of young women and women in water governance, climate justice, and sustainable development processes. Across communities in Zimbabwe, young women are already leading transformative change engaging local authorities on accountable service delivery, influencing local budgets for water infrastructure, advocating for safe sanitation systems, and organizing collective community responses to water challenges.
We have seen how access to safe water directly improves women’s health, dignity, safety, education, and economic participation. We have also seen how the lack of water and sanitation deepens gender inequalities, increases unpaid care work, limits leadership participation, and exposes women and girls to violence and health risks. Water and sanitation are therefore not only development issues, but feminist, governance, and justice issues.
This Africa Day, we celebrate the resilience, leadership, and collective power of African women and young women who continue to organize, advocate, and lead solutions within their communities. Their voices and actions remind us that sustainable development is only possible when women and girls can live with dignity, safety, equality, and access to essential services.
African Union fans
