Around the world, 644 million women and girls alive today were once child brides. In Sub-Saharan Africa, where the rates are highest, one in every five girls is married before her 18^th birthday.

As the world observes the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, we must ask an urgent question: are the laws designed to protect girls actually working? Rights on paper are not enough if they don’t translate into real safety and opportunity.

The reality on the ground is stark. New data from the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law team reveals that among 26 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, only 15 have passed laws criminalizing female genital mutilation (FGM), leaving nearly half the region without basic legal protection for millions of girls whose health, safety, and dignity remain at risk.

The gaps don't stop there. Even where laws exist, they are often fragmented or poorly enforced. In just five of the countries surveyed, including Côte d’Ivoire, can parents be prosecuted for allowing FGM to be performed on a minor. None of the 26 countries guarantees access to reproductive health services when providers refuse care on conscience grounds.

This highlights a critical and familiar challenge: a law is only as strong as its enforcement.

Why Regional Action Matters

In Western and Central Africa (AFW), progress in protecting women and girls requires countries to work together to harmonize laws and enforce survivor protections.

The Sub-Saharan Africa's Women's Empowerment and Demographic Dividend project (SWEDD+) and its predecessor project SWEDD have worked in 12 AFW countries to eliminate harmful practices, advance gender equality, and expand girls’ access to health and education. Legal reform, ensuring laws exist and are implemented is a key pillar of SWEDD+.

Momentum is building. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has adopted regional policies to prevent and respond to gender-based violence (GBV) and harmful practices. And the African Union’s (AU) Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, adopted in 2025, establishes a continental standard. Together, these frameworks offer a blueprint for change and for countries to follow.

To help drive this change, to better protect women and girls across the region it is important for countries and regional organizations to come together regularly and discuss how conditions can continue to make girls’ lives safer. In September 2025, legal experts from the SWEDD+ countries and other international institutions participated in a specialized training on Legal Reforms for GBV Prevention and Response.

Key takeaways included:

• Legal complementarity approach: Laws and their enforcement should work together to prevent GBV and FGM, promote sexual and reproductive health, foster access to justice, and build strong partnerships across legal, traditional, religious, social, and health sectors.
• The broader Legal Environment and Harmonization of Laws: Address ambiguities or contradictions between different laws relating to GBV and FGM. For instance, while specific provisions in the Penal Code may address FGM, other laws may inadvertently undermine these protections. A coherent and harmonized legal framework ensures that criminalization is effectively integrated with preventive and protective measures.
• Align national laws with ECOWAS and AU regional frameworks, reinforcing consistency and shared accountability across borders.
• Engage religious and traditional leaders, recognizing that sustainable legal reforms must be accompanied by the transformation of harmful social norms.
• Measuring what matters: through the SWEDD+ GBV Legal Scorecard, ensuring continuous monitoring of country progress and fostering peer learning across the region while strengthening the measurement of social norms.

Beyond Laws: What Effective Change Requires

Passing a law is only the first step. To eliminate FGM and other harmful practices, countries need coordinated and systematic law implementation that engages entire communities to support survivors and promote gender equity, health, and sexual education.

The SWEDD+ Legal Complementarity Approach emphasizes that:

• Legal protections (penal codes, statutes) must be backed by budgets, institutions, and survivor services.
• Health, legal, education, and faith sectors must work together to drive change.
• Contradictions in different laws must be resolved, so protections against GBV and harmful practices are consistent and enforceable.
• Survivors must have guaranteed access to sexual and reproductive health services.
• The law must explicitly protect the most vulnerable: girls with disabilities, rural girls, and adolescent mothers.

A Call to Action

Law alone won't keep girls safe. Enforcement does. The impact of these laws depends on whether they contribute to reducing violence and supporting opportunities and dignity.

When girls are safe, healthy, and able to stay in school, they can determine their own futures. As women, they are able to work, start businesses, and fully participate in the economy.

Evidence shows that households with equal power dynamics between women and men tend to experience improved decision-making, better outcomes for children, and a reduced likelihood of intergenerational poverty (World Bank Gender Strategy (2024-2030, page 6). Women’s economic participation boosts productivity, drives growth, and increases profits for entire communities and countries. Keeping girls safe isn’t only the right thing to do, it’s also an economic strategy for shared prosperity. And when girls thrive, so do their families, communities and entire countries.

During these 16 Days of Activism, let’s move beyond awareness. Let’s turn commitments into action, and ensure that, across West and Central Africa, legal protections lead to real safety and opportunity for every girl.