On this Pan-African Women’s Day 2025, I am proud to stand alongside Ms Prudence Nonkululeko Ngwenya, Director of the African Union Official Commission’s Women, Gender and Youth Directorate, in my role as an Africa REACH Leadership Council Member, to reflect on the legacy and leadership of African women, and to celebrate their enduring resilience as the foundation of our communities and the architects of intergenerational wellbeing, through co-authoring our joint op-ed, “Empowering African Women from the Start: Integrating HIV Prevention into the First Bonds of Life.”

This year’s Pan-African Women’s Day 2025 theme, Advancing Social and Economic Justice for African Women through Reparations, calls us toward meaningful action to redress historic and structural inequalities and invest in systems that uphold the dignity, health, and agency of African women from the very beginning of life.

As we prepare to mark World Breastfeeding Week tomorrow, under the theme Prioritise Breastfeeding: Create Sustainable Support Systems and World Health Organization Invest in Breastfeeding, Invest in the Future, we are reminded that support must encompass comprehensive HIV prevention for mothers and their babies, from routine antenatal testing and early infant diagnosis to equitable investment and access to long-acting PrEP such as CAB-LA.

HIV prevention must be understood as a foundational element of respectful, gender-responsive maternal and child health care. From ministries to midwives, and from grassroots networks to global institutions, we must align our efforts to ensure that no woman is excluded from the promise of health equity.

The Wellbeing Foundation Africa continues our commitment to equip every mother with the tools to live, to lead, and to breastfeed free from fear, stigma, or HIV, and I reaffirm our commitment to advocating for maternal health justice and to ensuring that African women can nourish the next generation with respect and in wellbeing.