Pathways to Prosperity for Adolescent Girls in Africa

Kehinde Ajayi and
Estelle Koussoubé, Editors

Key Messages

• Africa holds the key to its own prosperity: investing in the untapped economic potential of adolescent girls.
• To succeed, adolescent girls must obtain the skills, resources, and agency they need for autonomy and prosperity in adulthood.
• The reality, however, is different for adolescent girls in Africa. Currently, 40 percent of 15- to 19-year-old girls in Africa are out of school and not working or are married or have children, compared with 12 percent of boys in the same age range, highlighting the urgent need for action.
• This report recommends six strong but affordable sets of actions to ensure adolescent girls succeed:

1. Improve adolescent girls’ health and education by reducing out-of-pocket costs, expanding access, and providing youth-friendly services.
2. Promote their economic success through proven and promising multisectoral interventions that integrate technical and life skills training with employment support, tailored to labor market demands and contextual factors.
3. Make the most vulnerable girls the priority, ensuring that no one is left behind.
4. Adopt a holistic approach to the design of interventions for adolescent girls, recognizing the multidimensional nature of empowerment.
5. Address data and evidence gaps to inform effective policies and programs.
6. Foster collaboration and mobilize support from diverse stakeholders to achieve sustainable impact.

• By implementing these recommendations between now and 2040, African countries could unlock an additional $2.4 trillion in income. With the right investments and support, adolescent girls could be the drivers of Africa’s economic transformation.

Executive Summary

Why Prioritize Pathways to Prosperity for Adolescent Girls in Africa?

Africa is the world’s youngest region. It holds the key to its own prosperity: investing in the untapped economic potential of its adolescents, particularly its adolescent girls. More than one-fifth of the world’s adolescent girls (ages 10 to 19)—145 million—reside in Africa, and this share is expected to increase to more than one-third by 2050 (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division 2024). For Africa to win the battle against poverty and achieve sustained economic growth, strategic investments are imperative. These investments must flow to adolescent girls, equipping them with the human capital fundamentals, enabling resources, and agency essential to live economically prosperous adult lives.

Despite their potential, adolescent girls in Africa face distinct gender-specific challenges that significantly affect their economic prospects. The region has the highest incidence of child marriage for girls globally, with one in three African girls marrying before the age of 18. Notably, West and Central Africa are home to 7 of the 10 countries with the highest prevalence of child marriage worldwide (UNICEF 2022). Furthermore, although some progress has been made in the past 25 years, these improvements have primarily benefited the wealthiest households; child marriage rates continue to rise among the poorest in Africa (UNICEF 2023). Child marriage is often associated with early childbearing and a higher fertility rate over a girl’s lifetime, with significant negative consequences for both girls and their children across various domains, including health and their future labor market outcomes (Petroni et al. 2017; Wodon et al. 2017).

Gender gaps in Africa emerge before adolescence and widen during the transition to adolescence and then adulthood. Although there are relatively small gender gaps in schooling among 10- to 14-year-olds in most African countries, girls are typically more likely to participate in household work and boys are more likely to participate in paid work. In the older-adolescent group (ages 15 to 19), a significant number of girls in Africa (26 percent) are neither working nor in school, compared with about 9 percent of boys. Additionally, about 22 percent of these girls are married, compared with only 1 percent of boys. As these older adolescents transition into young adulthood (ages 20 to 24), the gender disparity becomes even more pronounced. Among young women in this age group, 56 percent are married with children, whereas fewer than 16 percent remain in school. In contrast, young men are more likely to continue their education or enter the labor force, and 71 percent remain unmarried without children (figure ES.1).

Adolescent girls’ empowerment is not just a matter of human rights; it is also a valuable investment. This report reveals that every dollar invested in adolescent girls’ empowerment can generate more than a tenfold return in economic impact. The net benefit of such investments amounts to approximately $2.4 trillion. This stands in contrast to the total cost of investing in the next two generations of girls across all countries, which amounts to less than $200 billion (Rossouw et al. 2024).

How can countries—in particular, African countries—build a pathway to prosperity for adolescent girls? This report seeks to answer this key question. Drawing on recent initiatives and rigorous research geared toward identifying and addressing the distinct challenges faced by adolescent girls in Africa, the report presents new analyses and a comprehensive conceptual framework for understanding, measuring, and improving adolescent girls’ empowerment. This approach considers the diverse range of experiences and needs among adolescent girls, taking into account factors such as their educational status, marital status, and whether they have children. The report concludes by charting a course of policy action to build pathways to prosperity for adolescent girls.