Ethiopia: Strategies to end child marriage (II)

The groups were partners from the North Africa and the African Union, organizations from India, research groups from Central America and Brazil and the groups from United States and global arena. A general overview of the presentations during the three day meeting captured the situation of child brides. Every day, 39,000 girls are married and […]

The groups were partners from the North Africa and the African Union, organizations from India, research groups from Central America and Brazil and the groups from United States and global arena.
A general overview of the presentations during the three day meeting captured the situation of child brides. Every day, 39,000 girls are married and about 13,000 of these are under 15, some as young as eight or nine years. Research shows that child marriage is most common both in rates and number in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia.  Niger Republic has the highest rate of child bride, 75 percent of all its girls are married by age 18.  Child marriage is restricted in most places but laws against it are often not enforced.  An example is India which outlawed child marriage in 1929 but still has 40 percent of known child brides. Parents tend to marry off their daughters early where poverty rates and birth rates are high. Global averages are declining but improvement is mostly confined to wealthier areas.
Many presentations highligh-ted the disadvantages of early marriage. Girls who marry before age 18 are less likely to complete primary school, more likely to experience unwanted pregnancies and injury during child birth. Complications during child birth are the leading cause of death for girls in Africa and South Asia where child marriage is most common. Girls who do survive child birth are at increased risk of pregnancy complications such as Vesico Vaginal fistulae VVF which causes uncontrollable leakage of urine and faeces. There are more than 2 million adolescent girls with fistula worldwide.
On the strategies adopted to combat child marriage, most of the partners are into research, capacity building in advocacy and data collection. They are also focusing on raising community awareness while donors are funding empowerment programmes for girls and their family directly instead of working through intermediaries.
Donors like the Ford Foun-dation are also investing in networking such as this meeting in Ethiopia to facilitate learning, sharing of innovative best practices and coordination between organisations working to end child marriage in different regions.
        An international initiative, Girls Not Brides (GNB) has united more than 200 nongovernmental organisations in more than 40 countries convinced that it will be more effective in achieving their objectives by working together than by working alone.  Their focus is defending the rights of girls to health, education and the opportunity to fulfil their potential. In line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), they are advocating that 18 should be the minimum age of marriage for boys and girls. They are therefore working towards ensuring that no child marries before the age of 18, in line with the UN CRC which all but two nations have ratified.
 The network of NGOs are working to raise awareness of the harmful impact of child marriage by encouraging open, inclusive and informed discussion at the community, local, national and international level. The NGOs are also mobilising all necessary policy, financial and other support and positively and constructively engaging with other members, as well as governments and other relevant actors at a local, national and global level; to end child marriage.   
Another strategy they are using is amplifying the voices of girls at risk of child marriage and empowering them to articulate their demands and speak for themselves. They therefore include girls’ and young people’s voices and representation in working to end child marriage.
Child marriage has deep roots in the social norms of various communities, the NGOs believe that social change cannot succeed without community engagement and action and that global and national efforts should ultimately support local change; They are therefore working together to enhance and strengthen efforts to end child marriage at community, local, national and global levels.
There was a session on ‘Exploring our Work: An Interactive Marketplace’, where participants moved around freely, approached each other and discussed the activities undertaken by their various organisations. I shared the work we were doing at three of my NGOs, the Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria FOMWAN where we focus on education and health and have established over 200 schools and five hospitals nationwide. At Kaduna based Girl Child Concerns GCC, we provide scholarships for brilliant but needy girl children from public schools to ensure that they complete school. At AdvocacyNigeria, we focus on reduction of maternal mortality and promoting child survival working with a network of NGOs in 14 Northern states and Abuja the Federal Capital Territory.
The Northern states are priority area due to poor development indicators. A 2013 Scorecard for Nigeria produced by the Africa Health, Human & Social Development Information Service (Afri-Dev. Info) in partnership with Africa Coalition on Maternal Newborn and Child Health, and Pan African Campaign Against Forced Marriage of Underage Children confirmed this.
According to the report, ‘eight states – Kebbi, Sokoto, Bauchi, Jigawa, Yobe, Zamfara, Katsina, and Gombe have the worst performance across all indicators.
The indicators included; Lowest girl child education; Highest female illiteracy; Highest adolescent girl ‘marriage’, Highest under 18 child bearing and Highest under 15 child bearing placing them in the highest risk category for maternal death and injury.
The Scorecards also revealed that although worst performing states in terms of Girl Child Education are from the North it’s a serious national problem affecting all states. Ebonyi state which placed 12 for highest percentage of girl children not in secondary school – scores worse than North Central, North East and North West states of Nasarawa , Benue,  Adamawa, Kaduna, Plateau, Kogi  and Kwara .
Similarly, for the number of adolescent girls in ‘marriage’, Bayelsa State (where President Goodluck Jonathan was deputy governor and then governor) is at number 13 scoring worse than Adamawa Benue, Taraba and Nasarawa. In the indicator of females (aged 20 to 24 years) but who had a live birth before age of 18 years, Bayelsa again at number 13 scores worse than Adamawa Taraba and Niger.
The three northern states score better than Delta; Rivers; and Anambra. The meeting ended with closing comments by Ambassador Olawale Maiyegun, Director of Social Affairs, African Union, and Ford Foundation Program Officers. It was a unique learning and networking experience.