Girls Advocacy Alliance Regional Africa SUMMARY 
African governments have signed regional treaties by which they commit themselves to protect and promote children’s and women’s rights. Regional institutions such as the African Union (AU) and the Regional Economic Communities (REC) such as ECOWAS in West-Africa and the East African Community (ECA) are responsible for monitoring the compliance of member states. Unfortunately, there are still governments that fail to implement these treaties. The Girls Advocacy alliance will influence regional institutions to promote member states’ compliance, particularly on the issues of child marriage and child trafficking. The alliance members, Plan, Terre des Hommes and DCI-ECPAT will support regional civil society networks in Africa, to strengthen their collaboration and increase the effectiveness of their advocacy efforts towards regional institutions. The programme started in 2016 and will end in 2020. Despite the adoption of regional treaties and agreements by African governments, such as the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, the Maputo Protocol on the Rights of Women and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, too many governments are not implementing the actions stipulated under these treaties. The treaties also entail reporting and monitoring requirements and mechanisms through which individual member states can be hold accountable by regional institutions. 
Unfortunately, the process of regional monitoring and accountability is plagued by many weaknesses. Regional institutions often lack capacity and accurate data to perform their monitoring function. Many African governments do not comply with the reporting requirements set under these treaties due to technical capacity constraints and lack of political will. There is not enough willingness to sanction those governments that do not respect their regional commitments. Finally, the lack of a strong advocacy at regional level by effective civil society networks further complicates the accountability of member states. The long-term goal of the alliance at Africa regional level is to eliminate GBV and to increase girls’ and young women’s access to economic opportunities. In order to achieve this goal, the alliance aims to obtain the following results: 
1.	Enhance capacity of regional and sub-regional civil society organisation (CSO) networks to influence regional policy making and monitoring 
2.	Improved monitoring and accountability mechanisms and practices by regional and sub-regional bodies (ECOWAS and EAC) 
3.	Regional and sub-regional policies on migration, covering cross border issues of CSEC and trafficking successfully mainstream children’s rights
The alliance members, together with their regional partners FAWE and FIDA, will lobby the regional institutions to ensure that regional agreements and policies are being implemented by national governments. To this end, they will closely cooperate with key agents within these regional institutions such as the Special Rapporteur on Women’s Rights and the Organisation of African First Ladies. In addition, they will provide support to regional networks of child and women rights organisations and promote the voices of girls and young women in regional advocacy platforms. The specific advocacy issues of the alliance, child marriage and child trafficking, are increasingly being recognized by policy makers within African regional institutions. In 2014, the African Union launched a campaign to eliminate child marriage, which in the past two years has been endorsed by a growing number of African governments. The African Union appointed a Goodwill Ambassador on ending child marriages and Africa’s Special Rapporteur on Women’s Rights has made various calls to African leaders to reform laws and policies in the struggle against child marriage. 
The alliance members Plan, DCI, ECPAT and Terre des Hommes, have developed strong relationships with essential bodies within the African Union and the Regional Economic Communities. In addition to the Goodwill Ambassador and the Special Rapporteur mentioned above, alliance members are recognized as professional and legitimate spokespersons on children’s and women’s rights by the African Court, the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of Children. The engagement with these bodies is a key condition for successful advocacy in regional policy and monitoring processes. The ultimate (indirect) beneficiaries are girls (10 – 18 years) and young women (18 – 24 years) in all African member states who should benefit from improved policy implementation by their national governments (in accordance to the regional treaties and agreements). The core of the Africa regional programme is the capacity support provided to the regional (women’s rights) partners FAWE and FIDA. Based on their current advocacy capacity strengths and weaknesses and their own interests, the alliance will invest in the development of their organisational skill to design effective advocacy strategies, draft sound advocacy messages, deepen the collaboration with other regional and national civil society organisations and to strengthen their engagement with crucial regional bodies. 
Together with FAWE and FIDA, the alliance members will engage in lobby and advocacy, conduct research and linking and networking actions. The lobby and advocacy actions include:
1.	Support advocacy by sub-regional  CSOs for full ratification and reporting campaign on the Maputo Protocol and other regional and sub regional instruments                  
2.	Support CSO advocacy on the Continental Campaign on Ending Child Marriages in Africa at Regional and Continental levels as well as media engagement.       
3.	Support national CSOs and Youth networks particularly girls to consult, produce and submit Complementary Reports to ACERWC & ACmHPR and participate in their sessions
4.	Support the Women, Gender and Development Directorate of the African Union to plan and commemorate the International Day of the Girl across the continent    
5.	Engagement and lobby the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa on enhancing the monitoring and accountability mechanisms of state parties on women and girls’ rights and gender equality  
6.	Support CSOs to be actively engaged in development of report cards on the Maputo protocol and other regional and sub regional instruments
7.	Organize  girls and young women led sessions/meetings during key regional and sub-regional events such as the AUC summit, GIMAC and engage with governments representatives on policy dialogue
The planned research actions include:
1.	Conduct an assessment of key AU, ECOWAS and EAC policies The regional Girls Advocacy programme in Africa has been designed to ensure the sustainability of the expected policy and practice results at country level (the 6 GAA country programmes in Africa). By improving regional monitoring and accountability mechanisms, individual governments will face more external pressure (emanating from their regional neighbours) to act in accordance to regional standards and commitments. 
Strategies to ensure the sustainability of improved regional mechanisms are:
1.	By strengthening the organisational capacity of key regional civil society partners, they will be able to perform their watchdog role effectively in the long run;
2.	The promotion of strong regional networks of civil society organisations will increase the impact of regional civil society advocacy in the future (as joint action is likely to be much more successful than the isolated advocacy efforts of individual organisations);
3.	The mobilization of groups of girls and young women and their engagement with regional bodies and individual governments will support the development of a new generation of female activists and advocates able to put girls and women’s rights on the regional agenda.