Ethiopia: Strategies to end child marriage (I)

The city seemed to be changing with new buildings springing up in different parts, particularly in the business district. We were in Ethiopia for a meeting organised by the Ford Foundation in collaboration with the African Union. It held from October 19- 22 and because of the theme, it seemed to be a continuation of […]

The city seemed to be changing with new buildings springing up in different parts, particularly in the business district. We were in Ethiopia for a meeting organised by the Ford Foundation in collaboration with the African Union. It held from October 19- 22 and because of the theme, it seemed to be a continuation of the International Day of the Girl Child which was celebrated worldwide on October 11 2014.
 The meeting was designed as a forum to bring together Ford Foundation grantees and other partners working on ending child marriage from different regions and countries. The objective was to contribute to a learning and programmatic action plan for improving their work. Another objective of the meeting was to provide an opportunity for the participants to build partnerships and foster cross-regional learning on combating child marriage. During the meeting, participants engaged in peer-to-peer discussions designed to surface key learning from successes achieved as well as challenges that have emerged as they implement their projects. This led them to envision how they could work together to collectively achieve their goals in the future. They also used the forum to network and share the excellent work their various organizations were doing in different parts of the world on ending child marriage. The Nigerian delegation was led by Professor Friday Okonofua of the West African Regional Office of the Ford Foundation based in Lagos. His organisation provided a grant to a consortium of Non Governmental Organisations NGOs working to promote the rights of girl children, ensuring that they finish school and end child marriage. The consortium is supervised by Action Aid Nigeria which was represented by Dr Hussaini Abdu the Country Director. Other members of the consortium who attended the Addis meeting were Umma Iliyasu Mohammed of Kaduna based Girl Child Concerns, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani of Abuja based Centre for Legislative Advocacy CISLAC, Amina Hanga of Kano based Isa Wali Empowerment Initiative IWEI.
The event began with a welcome dinner on October 19 2014 at the scenic Hotel Belle-Vue situated on a hill that provided a beautiful view of Addis.  The Ford Foundation team included Margaret Hempel, Ana Luisa Liguori, David Hulse, Eka Williams from the South Africa Office, Friday Okonofua from the West Africa Office in Lagos. Other team members were Montasser Kamal, Vanita Mukherjee from India and Tanya Khokhar from Pakistan. African Union representative, Ambassador Olawale Maiyegun, the Director of Social Affairs at the African Union and his staff welcomed participants and assured them that the African Union which had been launching awareness campaigns across African countries would always support the regional campaign to promote child rights and end child marriage.  Defined simply, Child marriage is “A(ny) marriage or union between spouses carried out below the age of 18 years, before the child is physically, physiologically, and psychologically ready to shoulder the responsibilities of marriage and the girl, childbearing.” It involves the girl or both spouses being children and may take place with or without formal registration, and under civil, religious or customary laws. In many societies in developing countries, child marriages are used to build or strengthen alliances between families.’         
On the first day of the meeting, there were presentations on exploring regional campaigns in Africa in which Ambassador Maiyegun and Françoise Moudouthe, Africa Regional Officer, Girls Not Brides GNB made presentations. GNB is the Global Partnership to End Child Marriage. The organization is committed to ‘ending child marriage, a harmful traditional practice that affects millions of children, predominantly girls, every year. Members of GNB network together to accelerate efforts to prevent child marriage, and to support girls who are or have been married, all over the world.’
There were Short presentations
 from various partners such as UNICEF,
 the Population Council
 ,UNFPA and  Plan International. Others include Children and the Law Programme and African Child Policy Forum. This was followed by presentation by Ford Foundation grantees. The presenters discussed the importance of data and research in getting evidence to back up advocacy and influence policy makers. Among the presenters were Negar Ashtari Researcher, Development Research and Projects Centre, Maria Lafuente Funes Officer of Alliances, UNFPA and José Roberto Luna Manzanero Youth Specialist on Education and Masculinity, UNFPA. Presentation on Policy and law was made by Nyasha Chingore Project Lawyer, Sexual and Reproductive Rights Programme, Southern Africa Litigation Centre, Hala Youssef Chair, National Population Council, Egypt.  The pathway between regional versus global
 level was explored by Tian Johnson, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Portfolio Manager, Sonke Gender Justice, Melissa Upreti, Regional Director for Asia, Global Legal Program, Centre for Reproductive Rights.
The session on intersectionality of child marriage with other development issues was discussed by Zeinab Heada, Senior Technical Advisor, CARE, Egypt
, Rotimi Sankore Coordinator, Africa Health and Social Development Alliance. There was a session on exploring social norms
 which featured Krinna Shah Consultant, HAQ Centre for Child Rights, and my humble self representing Advocacy Nigeria. All the sessions were short in order to provide enough time for contributions from all participants. At the end of the day participants went for dinner at the stylish Yod Abyssinia Restaurant in a lively part of Addis.
The second day of the meeting featured reflections from Ford Foundation program officers from different parts of the world. The session was moderated by Anisha Chugh, Program Officer, Advocacy and Networking, South Asia Women’s Fund, Erin Kennedy Senior Advisor of Advocacy and Partnerships, CARE USA. Given the importance of working with the media to amplify voices and disseminate messages, a session was dedicated to communications strategies titled 
“Tracking Media Coverage and Framing the Issues”. The session had Kathy Bonk Executive Director, Communications Consortium Media Centre “African Union Campaigns Communication Strategy”, Nena Thundu Social Welfare Officer, African Union and  “Making Early Marriage Everybody’s Business” Sohini Bhattacharya Vice President, Breakthrough Trust.
The group work was the most participatory part of the meeting. Participants were divided into groups to discuss various activities they were implementing as community intervention. Facilitators were appointed to guide the groups. Among them were Monica Aleman Program Officer for Gender, Sexuality, Reproductive Justice, Ford Foundation Washington; Vanita Mukherjee, Program Officer for Gender, Sexuality, Reproductive Justice, Ford Foundation India. The working groups made their presentations at plenary.  A session on Research and policy was also facilitated by Montasser Kamal, Senior Program Officer for Gender, Sexuality, Reproductive Justice, Ford Foundation, Friday Okonofua, Program Officer for Gender, Sexuality, Reproductive Justice, Ford Foundation. Contents of various presentations will be discussed next week.