Towards an Africa where every child enjoys all rights and attains their full potential.
ACPF Press Release
AFRICA: Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is an urgent Children’s Rights Crisis
ACPF and Leiden University Children’s Rights Legal Clinic urge AU and Member States to recognize antimicrobial resistance as an urgent environmental rights crisis for children in Africa, calling for greater accountability and coordination across the region.
Addis Ababa, 19 October 2026
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AFRICA: Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is an urgent Children’s Rights Crisis
ACPF and Leiden University Children’s Rights Legal Clinic urge AU and Member States to recognize...
Statement by Dr Daniel Bekele: Continental Commitments and the Way Forward
48th Ordinary Session of the ACERWC – Day of General DiscussionViolence Against Children and...
Africa: ACPF Calls for Fast-tracked Implementation of Africa’s Commitment to Ending Violence Against Children
At the Day of General Discussion held during the 48th Ordinary Session of the ACERWC in Maseru,...
Africa: Remarks of ACPF Executive Director at the 48th Ordinary Session of ACERWC
Speaking at the official opening ceremony of the 48thOrdinary Session of the African Committee of...
Africa: Dialogue Forum on Child Rights and Business
The African Child Policy Forum urges stakeholders to integrate children’s rights into business...
Africa: ACPF Congratulates Executive Director Dr. Daniel Bekele on Receiving the iChange Nations Global Voice of Change Award
The Global Civility Leadership Institute and iChange Nations have unanimously approved the...
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Africa: ACPF Calls for Fast-tracked Implementation of Africa’s Commitment to Ending Violence Against Children
At the Day of General Discussion held during the 48th Ordinary Session of the ACERWC in Maseru, Lesotho, ACPF Executive Director and APEVAC Chair call for country-led action, practical learning and stronger accountability to turn continental commitments into meaningful progress for children.
Maseru, 14 October 2026
During the 48th Ordinary Session of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) in Maseru, Lesotho, the Committee held a Day of General Discussion on the topic of “Violence Against Children and Harmful Practices: Navigating the Digital Frontier”, which brought together government representatives, continental and international institutions, CSOs, academia, children and the Committee members for an interactive deliberations.
Speaking during the interactive discussion event, African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) Executive Director and Chair of the African Partnership to End Violence against Children (APEVAC) said, “The Common Africa Position on Ending Violence Against Children, CAP-EVAC, represents an important step forward in Africa’s collective effort to ensure that every child grows up free from violence, exploitation, abuse and harm.”
CAP-EVAC is an African common continental framework for advancing Africa’s efforts to end violence against children. It calls for a shift beyond policy reform and fragmented interventions towards prevention-centered, integrated, adequately financed and accountable systems that protect children at scale. Its six strategic pillars address sustainable financing and investment; child and survivor participation; governance, leadership and legal protection; integrated prevention and response systems; protection in humanitarian and crisis contexts; and data, evidence, learning and innovation.
Africa’s next challenge is to translate its shared continental commitment into sustained, nationally owned action that makes a tangible difference in children’s lives. CAP-EVAC provides a shared direction. The task now is to strengthen countries’ capacity to put that commitment into practice, learn from experience and demonstrate progress.
The African Union Commission, particularly its Department of Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, and AU Member States remain central to CAP-EVAC’s leadership and follow-through. The ACERWC also has an important role through its mandate to monitor the implementation of children’s rights and advance accountability.
An implementation-learning and accountability approach is being explored to connect country action, peer learning and evidence with existing continental processes. Its design and institutional arrangements will require African Union leadership and engagement with Member States. Any approach should strengthen existing systems rather than create parallel plans, structures or reporting requirements.
ACPF, through APEVAC, alongside UNICEF and WHO AFRO through ARISE Africa, contribute technical expertise, convening and support for African-led learning in alignment with African Union leadership.
APEVAC is a pan-African partnership that brings together stakeholders working to end violence against children. With ACPF serving as its Secretariat, it provides a platform for collaboration, shared advocacy and collective action across the continent.
The Day of General Discussion concluded by adopting a comprehensive list of recommendations for member states and all stakeholders including turning the political commitments to fast-tracked implementation.
“Africa has established a common direction. The next step is to turn that direction into sustained action, learn from implementation and strengthen accountability for progress, so that the commitment to end violence against children is reflected in children’s everyday lives”, Dr. Daniel Bekele said.
For the full remarks of Dr. Daniel Bekele, please see here:
For more information, please contact:
In Maseru, Dr. Shimelis Tsegaye (English and Amharic) stsegaye@africanchildforum.org;
or +251 911614386
In Addis Ababa, Saba Lishan, (English and Amharic) lishan@africanchildforum.org;
or +251 932153411
About the African Child Policy Forum
The African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) is an independent, pan-African institution working to advance children’s rights and wellbeing through research, policy advocacy and engagement with African institutions and decisionmakers.
About African Partnership to End Violence against Children
The African Partnership to End Violence against Children (APEVAC) is a continental platform that supports collaboration and collective action to advance efforts to end violence against children. ACPF serves as its Secretariat. ACPF serves as the Secretariat for APEVAC.
48th Ordinary Session of the ACERWC – Day of General Discussion
Violence Against Children and Harmful Practices: Navigating the Digital Frontier
14 October 2026 | Maseru, Kingdom of Lesotho
Session V: Continental Commitments and the Way Forward
Dr Daniel Bekele
Executive Director, African Child Policy Forum
Chair of African Partnership to End Violence against Children
Honourable Chairperson, Distinguished representatives of the African Union and Member States, Colleagues, and, most importantly, the children whose rights bring us together.
The Common Africa Position on Ending Violence Against Children, CAP-EVAC, represents an important step forward in Africa’s collective effort to ensure that every child grows up free from violence, exploitation, abuse and harm.
As we have heard from the African Union Commission, CAP-EVAC provides a common continental framework for advancing Africa’s efforts to end violence against children. Its significance lies not only in the priorities it brings together, but also in the opportunity it creates for AU Member States and partners to work towards a shared ambition while responding to their different national context and realities.
The question before us now is how we translate this shared direction into sustained action and measurable progress for children.
As the CAP moves through the relevant AU processes towards anticipated consideration by the AU Assembly in February 2027, our focus must increasingly turn to implementation: what it will require, how countries can learn from experience, and how we can ensure that this continental commitment makes a real difference in children’s lives.
What would that require in practice?
First, we must turn continental priorities into specific, nationally owned change.
CAP-EVAC provides a common framework, but countries face different risks, institutional challenges and resource constraints. They will not all follow the same path, nor should they.
Each country should use its existing national strategies and coordination processes to identify where practical action can make the greatest contribution to preventing violence and strengthening protection.
For one country, this may mean strengthening prevention in families, schools and communities. For another, it may mean addressing gaps in financing, improving responses to reports of abuse, or ensuring that institutions work together more effectively.
Elsewhere, it may mean making sure that children experiencing violence online can access safe and appropriate support.
The essential question is not simply whether a policy, law or service exists. It is whether it works, reaches the children who need it, and helps prevent violence before more children are harmed.
Implementation will also require sustainable domestic financing. Continental commitments can only deliver results when they are reflected in national budgets and supported through adequately resourced child protection systems.
Second, we must make implementation a process of action and learning.
Across Africa, governments and partners have developed policies and programs to address violence against children. We now need to learn more systematically from implementation, understanding what works, what does not, and what can be adapted elsewhere.
I believe we can make this learning practical and focused.
Start with one country-owned priority. Identify what is holding progress back. Agree on a specific change, take action, gather evidence, and share the lessons with others facing similar challenges.
For example, referral pathways may exist on paper, yet children may still struggle to access help. The task is to identify where barriers exist, address them, and assess whether access to support improves.
This is not about producing more plans or creating additional reporting systems. It is about making better use of existing commitments, institutions and investments.
And learning must be honest. We need to understand what is working, where progress remains difficult, and what further action or support may be required. Evidence should help countries make better decisions, adapt their approaches and identify where additional investment is needed.
Third, we must make African experience more useful across countries and regions.
No country has all the answers. Yet across our continent, governments and their partners are developing approaches and overcoming challenges from which others can learn.
Regional Economic Communities can help countries exchange experience and adapt promising approaches. At continental level, the African Union can bring these lessons together, identify recurring barriers, and highlight the decisions needed to accelerate progress.
This is an opportunity to make African cooperation more practical, not by imposing one model on every country, but by ensuring that lessons learned in one context can help advance progress in another.
CAP-EVAC can therefore become more than a framework for common direction. It can become the shared platform through which Africa strengthens prevention, improves protection, and learns whether commitments are translating into meaningful change for children.
On the digital frontier:
The digital environment is now an integral part of children’s lives, and violence in that space cannot be addressed in isolation.
Online sexual exploitation and abuse, harassment and other digital harms often intersect with risks children face in their homes, schools and communities. Effective responses therefore require safe digital ecosystems, capable institutions, informed families, accessible support services and meaningful participation by children.
Governments, regulators, service providers and technology companies all have responsibilities to ensure that digital environments are designed and governed with children’s safety and rights in mind.
But children are not only users of digital technologies. They are increasingly creators, learners and advocates in digital spaces. Efforts to strengthen online safety must therefore protect children while also enabling them to participate, learn and thrive online.
The legislative and accountability discussions taking place today are therefore essential. The next step is to connect commitments to practice: clarify responsibilities, support institutions to carry them out, address barriers, and assess whether children are better protected.
And children themselves must help shape this work. Their experiences and perspectives should inform our priorities and help us judge whether responses are safe, accessible and effective. Participation must not end when a consultation closes; it must influence the decisions that follow.
Fourth, we must connect implementation learning to African accountability.
Lessons from country action should not remain in individual project reports or be lost when activities end. They should inform national decisions and contribute to a clearer continental understanding of what implementing CAP-EVAC requires.
The CAP envisages continental progress reporting and a knowledge platform. Evidence from implementation can make these instruments more useful by showing what is changing, which barriers persist, and where further support is needed.
The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child has an important role through its child rights monitoring and accountability mandate. The AU Commission, particularly the Department of Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, together with Member States, must remain central to CAP-EVAC’s leadership and follow-through.
An implementation, learning and accountability approach is being explored to connect country action, peer learning and evidence with existing continental processes. It should strengthen existing systems, not create parallel structures or reporting requirements.
ACPF, through the African Partnership to End Violence against Children, together with UNICEF and WHO AFRO through ARISE Africa, stands ready to contribute technical expertise, convening and support for African-led learning, in alignment with AU leadership.
Let me conclude with three priorities.
First, make CAP-EVAC actionable by helping countries translate continental priorities into focused, nationally owned changes that strengthen prevention, protection and response.
Second, make implementation a source of shared African knowledge by learning from action, exchanging experience across countries, and adapting lessons to national contexts.
Third, make that learning count by connecting credible evidence to national decision-making and existing African Union monitoring and accountability processes.
As we look towards February 2027 and the next stage of CAP-EVAC, our ambition must extend beyond securing approval for a continental framework. It must be to build the capacity, partnerships, financing and accountability needed to translate that framework into sustained action and measurable progress towards ending violence against children.
Ultimately, we should judge progress not by the number of commitments made, meetings held or documents produced, but by whether prevention is stronger, protection systems work better, and children are safer in their homes, schools, communities and digital lives.
Africa has established a common direction. Our responsibility now is to build a common capacity to act, learn and improve so that every child can experience the difference.
Thank you.
Dr Sheila R. Varadan
Assistant professor in children’s rights and global health Department of Health Law and Child Law Leiden University, Law School
Girma Gadisa Tufa
Manager, Children and the Law Programme, ACPF
Africa: Remarks of ACPF Executive Director at the 48th Ordinary Session of ACERWC
ACPF and Leiden University Children’s Rights Legal Clinic urge AU and Member States to recognize antimicrobial resistance as an urgent environmental rights crisis for children in Africa, calling for greater accountability and coordination across the region.
Addis Ababa, 19 October 2026 —African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) and Leiden University Children’s Rights Legal Clinic presented a policy briefing paper entitled, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), Children’s Rights, and the Right to a Healthy Environment in Africa at the 48th Ordinary Session of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in Maseru, Lesotho.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a natural evolutionary process whereby microbes develop resistance to antimicrobial medicines (antibiotics, antimalarials, antivirals and antifungals), making infections increasingly difficult to treat in humans, animals and plants. In 2019, approximately 4.95 million deaths were associated with bacterial AMR worldwide. One in five deaths occurred in children under five years of age, with almost 99 per cent of AMR-related deaths in Africa and more than half during the first month of the child’s life.
“These numbers point to the urgency of addressing AMR in Africa, where the burden of drug-resistant infections intersects with poverty, malnutrition, inadequate access to clean water and sanitation, environmental pollution and gaps in healthcare provision”’, said Dr Sheila Varadan, Assistant Professor of Children’s Rights and Global Health at Leiden University. She added that “Antimicrobial resistance is not only a public health problem but also a children’s environmental rights crisis.”
The same structural inequalities that expose children to greater risk of infectious disease (poverty, lack of clean water, sanitation and weak health systems) are also the drivers for the continued (mis)use of antimicrobials, which in turn has accelerated resistance. Moreover, the ongoing economic and social inequalities (leading to economic and social rights’ deprivation) have indirectly damaged microbiota, further accelerating AMR. The policy briefing paper explains that it is imperative to make these connections explicit and develop a children’s rights framework for the right to a healthy environment.
Children’s rights must be central to AMR governance
The briefing paper also examined how the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) have addressed environmental harm and children’s rights in their guidance and recommendations to States across Africa.
The briefing paper identified a significant gap in terms of the absence of any response by the regional human rights organs. AMR has not yet been addressed at all –either as a children’s rights issue or otherwise by the Committee. Furthermore, environmental harms (pollution, poor sanitation, food insecurity) are often treated as isolated concerns rather than interconnected and compounded threats to children’s right to a clean, sustainable and healthy environment.
This fragmented approach undermines the inherent connection between environmental degradation, economic and social rights deprivation, and children’s rights to health, life, survival and development. It also allows governments and businesses to evade responsibility to prevent environmental harm and ensure mitigation of AMR.
A call for stronger accountability and coordinated action
African States must urgently adopt a child rights-based approach to the right to a healthy environment. This requires concrete action to address the structural inequalities driving environmental harm, strengthen accountability, and embed children’s rights in all environmental policies and decision-making.
Sharing the recommendations of the briefing paper, Mr. Girma Gadisa Tufa, Manager of Children and the Law Programme at ACPF, said, “It is imperative for the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to work closely with the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization to ensure that continental frameworks and initiatives recognize antimicrobial resistance as a child health and children’s rights priority.”
For the Policy Briefing paper entitled, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), Children’s Rights, and the Right to a Healthy Environment in Africa, please visit:
Africa: ACPF Congratulates Executive Director Dr Daniel Bekele on Receiving the iChange Nations Global Voice of Change Award
The Global Civility Leadership Institute and iChange Nations have unanimously approved the conferment of the iChange Nations Global Voice of Change Award on Dr. Daniel Bekele. The award was presented during an official ceremony held in Harare, Zimbabwe, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to humanity, moral courage, and visionary leadership.
Addis Ababa, 7 October 2026
African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) warmly congratulates its Executive Director, Dr. Daniel Bekele, on being honored with the 2026 iChange Nations Global Voice of Change Award. The award was presented today by the Global Civility Leadership Institute and iChange Nations at an official ceremony in Harare, Zimbabwe, recognizing Dr. Daniel Bekele’s “outstanding contribution to humanity, moral courage, and visionary leadership.”
In announcing the award, the two institutions stated that the recognition is reserved for leaders “whose lives exemplify service above self and a lasting commitment to improving others’ lives.” They further noted that Dr. Daniel Bekele’s leadership reflects these qualities “in a manner worthy of international recognition.”
Previous recipients of the award include former President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, former President Dr. Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, former Chairperson of the African Union Commission Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and renowned international advocate for women’s and children’s rights H.E. Graça Machel, who is also a former Chair of the ACPF International Board of Trustees and currently serves as Patron of the organization.
Dr. Daniel Bekele has dedicated his professional life to advancing human rights, democratic governance, social justice, and the rights and wellbeing of children across Africa. Under his leadership, ACPF has continued to strengthen its role as a leading pan-African institution generating evidence, shaping policy, and advocating for the protection and advancement of children’s rights on the continent.
Commenting on the recognition, H.E. Elhadj As Sy, Chair of the ACPF International Board of Trustees, said, “We are immensely proud of this recognition of Dr. Daniel Bekele. It reflects not only his personal commitment to justice, dignity, and service, but also a testament of the ACPF leadership and team who work tirelessly to advance the rights and wellbeing of children across Africa. This award affirms the importance of values-based leadership in building a more equitable and child-friendly Africa.”
Receiving the award, Dr. Daniel Bekele expressed gratitude for the honor and dedicated it to those working every day to promote human dignity and children’s rights across the continent. “I am deeply humbled by this recognition. I accept it on behalf of the countless child rights advocates, civil society actors, community leaders, and development partners who continue to champion the rights and aspirations of Africa’s children. Their resilience and commitment inspire our work every day.”
The award comes at a critical moment as Africa seeks to accelerate progress toward achieving greater social inclusion, child protection, and sustainable development for future generations. ACPF remains committed to working with governments, regional institutions, civil society organizations, development partners, and children themselves to ensure that every child in Africa enjoys their rights and reaches their full potential.
Africa: Dialogue Forum on Child Rights and Business
The African Child Policy Forum urges stakeholders to integrate children’s rights into business practices, trade, and investment.
Maseru: 12 October 2026
The African Child Policy Forum (ACPF), in collaboration with the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC), convened a Dialogue Forum on Child Rights and Business on 12 October 2026 in Maseru, Lesotho. The dialogue forum which brought together representatives of children, governments, United Nations agencies and African Union bodies, private sectors, and civil society organisations, facilitated effective deliberations and experience sharing on practical approaches for integrating children’s rights into business practices.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Dialogue Forum, ACPF Executive Director, Dr Daniel Bekele, said, “Africa’s economic development holds enormous promise for Africa’s children. It creates jobs, strengthens livelihoods, reduces poverty, and contributes to sustainable development. However, economic growth alone is not enough. The true measure of progress is whether it improves the lives of children and protects their dignity, safety, and future opportunities.”
African countries are working towards ensuring sustainable development through the expansion of industries, trade and investment. Economic growth and business expansion across the continent affects children’s lives directly and indirectly. Business practices that respect children’s rights can contribute to their wellbeing through investments in education, health, social protection, and community development. Business activities may also expose children to many risks and vulnerabilities such as child labour, unsafe products and services, environmental degradation with significant health impact, digital harm, and displacement of communities.
While governments need to create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive, they should also strengthen mechanisms for regulating and monitoring business activities to ensure compliance with child rights standards. Doing so requires integrating children’s rights into national policies and strategies relating to business, trade, and investment as well as holding accountable those responsible for violations of children’s rights arising from business activities.
Dr. Daniel Bekele highlighted four key priorities on the way forward, “Building on the progress already achieved, deepening engagement with the private sector, addressing the implementation gap, and responding to emerging risks including risks in the digital world.” He added, “The question before us is not whether business has an impact on children. It unquestionably does. The question is whether we can collectively ensure that this impact is positive, responsible, and aligned with Africa’s development Agenda 2063 and the aspirations of Agenda 2040.”
The dialogue forum concluded by adopting an outcome statement outlining measures the African Union, Member States, Regional Economic Communities, private sector, civil society organisations and media need to take to promote child rights-compliant business practices in Africa.
For ACPF report Toiling for Survival: Children in the Urban Informal Sector in Africa, please visit:
For more information, please contact
- In Maseru, Girma Gadisa, Manager, Children and the Law Programme, (English, Amharic and Afan Oromo), gadisa@africanchildforum.org ,
+251 923 605 223
- In Maseru, Dr. Daniel Bekele, ACPF Executive Director, (English and Amharic) Bekele@africanchildforum.org ,
+251 91 322 9784
- In Addis Ababa, Sarah Guebreyes, Director, Operations and Business Development, (English, Amharic and French), sguebreyes@africanchildforum.org ,
+251 94 473 4477
Transition of the Executive Director, African Child Policy Forum
On behalf of the International Board of Trustees of the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF), I wish to announce that Dr. Joan Nyanyuki has completed her tenure as Executive Director effective December 18th, 2025, at the conclusion of her six-year term.
During this time, Dr. Nyanyuki has steered ACPF with vision, integrity and unwavering commitment to advancing the rights and wellbeing of Africa’s children. ACPF has continued to champion child rights across the Continent with inclusion and participation, aiming to hold national duty bearers to account for their commitments made to children. Over this period, the Forum has further solidified its position as a leading Pan-African and international voice for children producing rigorous research and analysis; highlighting major concerns for the protection of children’s rights, including those arising from conflicts, climate change, hunger and poverty; elevating the voices of adolescents; and building partnerships for children that transcend borders and institutions.
Despite multiple external challenges, the ACPF Team has been able to deepen the influence of the Forum for children across Africa and to build a sustainable foundation for future growth and transformation.
The International Board of Trustees is now moving to the identification and appointment of a successor Executive Director to carry forward the work of ACPF aiming at an Africa where every child not only survives but truly thrives.
The Board extends its gratitude to Dr. Nyanyuki for her service, dedication and leadership. We wish her every success in her future endeavours.
We look forward to our continued partnership and your support, with great appreciation.
With best wishes
Elhadj As Sy
Chairperson, International Board of Trustees
In Memoriam: H.E. Ambassador Kongit Sinegiorgis
It is with deep sorrow that we mark the passing of H.E. Ambassador Kongit Sinegiorgis, an eminent Ethiopian diplomat and founding member of African Child Policy Forum (ACPF).
H.E. Ambassador Kongit Sinegiorgis started her career in 1962, a year before the establishment of the Organisation of the African Unity (OAU). After joining the Foreign Service of Ethiopia, she held numerous positions both in Addis Ababa and overseas for over 50 years.
Ambassador Kongit was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the OAU (1995-96), Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the African Union and Director-General for African Affairs (2002), and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the African Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa, from 2009-2015.
Her diplomatic service also spanned postings in Austria, Egypt, Israel, Canada,and Mexico, as well as missions in New York, Vienna, and Geneva.
She was a graduate of the University College London and a Carnegie Fellow at Columbia University, later receiving an honorary degree from Addis Ababa University. She was also recognised by Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed for her distinguished service.
As a founding member of African Child Policy Forum, she played a vital role in advancing the rights and wellbeing of children across Africa.
Her passing is a profound l loss to Ethiopia, to the African continent, and to all those committed to advancing human rights and social justice. Her legacy will endure through the institutions she helped shape, the principles she upheld, and the many lives she impacted.
The International Board of Trustees of ACPF extends its sincere condolences to her family, colleagues, and all who mourn her passing.
May her soul rest in eternal peace.
Amen.
Elhadj As Sy
Chairperson, International Board of Trustees
CONGRATULATIONS TO AMBASSADOR LEMLEM FISEHA
Ambassador Lemlem Fiseha, Ethiopia’s Permanent Representative to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), recently presented her letter of credence to the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf.
Prior to her appointment, Ambassador Lemlem served at Ethiopia’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York as Minister Plenipotentiary and Political Coordinator, where she played a key role in advancing Ethiopia’s engagement within the multilateral system.
Ambassador Lemlem graduated with honors from the School of Law of Addis Ababa University in 2011. Shortly thereafter, she joined the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) in October 2011 as a Legal Intern. Following the successful completion of her internship, she was appointed as a Project Officer within ACPF’s Children and the Law Programme, a position she held until August 2014.
Driven by a commitment to further her academic and professional development, Ambassador Lemlem pursued graduate studies in the United States, earning a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Law and Government from the American University Washington College of Law.
Upon her return to Ethiopia, she joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she steadily advanced through positions of increasing responsibility, including serving as Head of the Legal Directorate. Her expertise in international law, diplomacy, and multilateral affairs has earned her recognition as one of Ethiopia’s accomplished diplomatic professionals.
Throughout her career, Ambassador Lemlem has distinguished herself through her professionalism, intellectual rigor, integrity, and ability to build constructive relationships. Those who have had the privilege of working with her know her as an approachable, thoughtful, and friendly colleague.
At ACPF, we take great pride in having been part of Ambassador Lemlem’s professional journey and are delighted to witness her continued achievements in public service. Her appointment as Ethiopia’s Permanent Representative to the African Union and UNECA is a testament to her dedication, competence, and exemplary leadership.
Congratulations, Ambassador Lemlem! We wish you every success in this important assignment. From all of us at ACPF.
Our Work
4 Programmes
- African Child Observatory
- Children and the Law
- Child Development and Protection
- African Partnership to End Violence Against Children (APEVAC)
4 Strategic Approaches
- Building evidence and knowledge
- Providing technical assistance and capacity building
- Engaging in cross-sectoral policy advocacy
- Monitoring child rights implementation
4 Strategic Directions
- Promoting legal, social and economic policy changes
- Strengthening government capacity and systems
- Advancing the rights of vulnerable, marginalised and underserved children
- Strengthening civil society capacity
5 Cross-cutting Issues
- Gender equality
- Climate crisis
- Armed conflicts
- Disability and inclusion
- Post-pandemic recovery
In focus : Children with Albinism in Africa
Drawing on case studies from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Nigeria, and Tanzania, alongside a continent-wide literature review, ACPF’s report entitled “Living in the Shadows, Children with Albinism in Africa” highlights the harsh realities faced by children with albinism—including ritual attacks, killings, stigma, discrimination, and exclusion, as well as barriers to essential services such as health care, education, and legal support.
It examines the limited capacity of child protection and law enforcement systems, identifies critical data gaps that perpetuate invisibility, and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of accountability mechanisms. At the same time, it highlights resilience through family care, community initiatives, and emerging policy and programmatic good practices.Download the reports in French and in English .
ACPF at a Glance
Explore our reports
Our unique Resource Centre comprises of hundreds of reports, briefings and studies from the past 20 years, including our flagship African Report on Child Wellbeing, the Child Friendliness Index and the International Policy Conference on the African Child.
Our Events
Africa’s satellite event at sidelines of Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children
Nov 6, 2024 | Bogota | Colombia
A Just Transition for Antimicrobial resistance: Forging a human rights-based approach to mitigate the impact in Africa
Oct 24-25, 2024 | Pretoria| South Africa
Regional Economic Communities (RECs) Workshop on the Guidelines on Ending Violence against Children
Oct 5, 2025 | Maseru | Lesotho
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