The African Women Leaders Network serves as a continental platform to galvanize women’s leadership of Africa towards lasting peace and sustainable development in all sectors and at all levels, building on, and working with, existing women networks with the support of the African Union and the United Nations. The Network builds on African women’s leadership to increase women’s participation in decision-making through peer learning and mentoring, enhanced solidarity, advocacy and capacity-building among other strategies.

Women leaders across sectors and generations came together in New York in June 2017, to launch the African Women Leaders Network (AWLN) with the support of the African Union Commission and the United Nations the Federal Republic of Germany.

In April 2018, the AWLN convened its second “Women Leaders Forum for Africa’s Transformation”, which sought to take stock of the achievements made by AWLN and women across Africa in the lead up to 2020. Six AWLN pillars were adopted on: (1) Governance; (2) Peace and Security; (3) Finance and Women’s Entrepreneurship; (4) Youth’s Leadership; (5) Agriculture and (6) Social Mobilization. Inter-generational partnership is recognized as strategic to help move the movement forward.