Statement by Dr. Julitta Onabanjo
Director, East and Southern Africa Regional Office, United Nations Population Fund
We would like to commend Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC), for her transformational leadership and unwavering commitment to improve the lives of millions of African girls and young women forced into child marriages. We thank her for the tireless strides she is making in ensuring the implementation of continental commitments for adolescents, youth and women. We also extend our congratulations to Commissioner Mustapha Kaloko, and his very special team that have worked really hard to make today a reality. Placing this at the start of the Fourth Session of the AU Conference of African Ministers responsible for social development (CAMSD4) under the theme, “Strengthening the African Family for Inclusive Development in Africa,” attests to the commitment to rally the continent’s key social sector leaders to champion a more equitable and sustainable Africa built on human rights and human dignity.
We take this opportunity to also thank the host Government – Ethiopia, and all the other AU member state governments, Regional Economic Commissions (RECs), NGOs, CSOs, activists and communities in Africa for their partnership, shared efforts and vision to transform positively the lives of millions of women and girls.
I had the valuable opportunity to participate in the Town Hall meeting yesterday and listen not only to very emotional yet hopeful testimonies from courageous and determined girls that told their stories of being child brides; but also to hear from a number of leaders and practitioners in government and outside of government on their efforts to end child marriage.
Not only impressed by the actions that are taking place in many of our countries (Zambia, Malawi, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger to mention a few), the sentiments expressed by a number of social media followers of the Town Hall meeting showed a strong social consciousness of the need to do more, and to do more immediately.
Because indeed the reality is that despite our many national, regional and universal commitments to end child and forced marriage, progress has not come fast enough or gone far enough.
One in three girls in low and middle income countries will be married before they are 18, and one in nine by age 15. And the consequence of our in-action today will see (in the next decade) 14.2 million girls become child brides every year (this translates into 39,000 girls married each day).
Of the 41 countries worldwide with a child marriage prevalence rate of 30 per cent or more, 30 countries are in Africa.
Our resolve today as we launch this campaign must therefore be resolute.
We can’t afford to allow child marriage to hold back our girls any longer;
We can’t allow child marriage to prevent our girls from getting an education knowing when a girl is deprived of education poverty is passed to the next generation;
We can’t allow child marriage to curtail their aspirations, their opportunities of reaching their full potential for themselves, their families and their countries;
We can’t allow child marriage to deny our girls (and our woman for that matter) their basic fundamental rights – their right to live free of violence, to have a voice in our communities, to participate in our development, to choose when and with whom to spend their lives with (and not get stoned to death) and to decide when and how many children to have;
We must not allow child marriage to prematurely make our girls “women” in the eyes of society, or to be used as negotiation tools by terrorist and traffickers;
And we must not allow child marriage to make our girls “child wives” before their young bodies are ready for pregnancy, child birth and parenting.
UNFPA believes that the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and young people is a fundamental precondition for sustainable development. Some of the greatest development challenges our continent still faces – poverty, illiteracy, high maternal mortality and morbidity including obstetric fistulae, high new born and infant mortality, psychosocial ill-health and gender discrimination stems from our inability to still ensure for our women and young people equality, justice and peace.
And therefore as we forge the next global sustainable development agenda and priorities for the post 2015 world, based on a common African position, our girls must be brought back - front and center. It is that simple. It is that urgent.
When girls are empowered to stay in school, avoid being forcefully married and pregnant early, and gain critical life skills including comprehensive sexuality education, they can build a foundation for a better life for themselves and their nations.
And when our boys and young men are brought back and made to be true men of honour, socialised in ways that ensure they appreciate and place women on an equal footing, we will see even more progress.
And so today, UNFPA is extremely pleased to be a partner in the continent’s efforts to end Child marriage and reaffirms its continued commitment to support the AUC, African governments, civil society and African children in this broad-based movement around child marriage and all other forms of practices that are detrimental to women and young girls.
Two decades ago, in 1994 the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development marked a turning point by putting people’s rights and dignity at the very heart of development. The blue print to address both new and longstanding population and development challenges including child marriage was set then in Cairo and will be reset this September at the General Assembly. To this end and based on the comprehensive ICPD at 20 review process we would like to offer five key areas we see as pivotal to an effective elimination response:
1. In the area of legal reform and implementation (Enact, standardize and enforce national laws)
Marriage under the age of 18 is illegal in 158 countries globally, and many more are bound by international human rights treaties to protect girls from the practice. In Africa, 35 countries have adopted laws on the minimum age of marriage. Yet many remain unenforced, some ambiguous and contradictory including where such operate alongside customary and religious laws making it important for countries to not only enforce existing laws, bringing perpetrators to justice, but to also rectify discrepancies between national laws on marriage age and entrenched customary and religious laws.
Zero tolerance of child marriage should be our goal. Enacting laws that ban child marriage is a good first step, but unless laws are enforced and communities and especially traditional custodians support these laws, there will have minimal impact.
2. Creating an enabling environment for social change
Changing embedded social norms and the root causes for child marriage is complex and will require deep understanding where power systems lie and how to leverage these for positive change. Working from within culture to change attitudes and societal practices that perpetuate child marriage, is critical.
3. Enhancing support service systems
While we must eliminate the practice, we must also remain sensitive to the many young married adolescents who are frequently marginalised from main stream services under the incorrect assumption that their married status ensures them a safe passage to adulthood. Girls at risk of child marriage and married young women need different services and support especial SRH information and services. Ending child marriage would not only help protect girls’ rights but would go a long way towards reducing the prevalence of early child birth which has significant mortality and morbidity risks.
Education is not only the key to unlocking girls’ potential; but it also contributes to girls delaying marriage across the continent. Studies including a recent one launched by the World Bank group earlier this month titled Empowering women and girls for shared prosperity , establish that girls with low levels of education are more likely to be married early, while those with secondary education are up to six times less likely to marry as children and cash or in-kind transfers conditional on not getting married have positive impacts. Prospects of safer and better job opportunities, and better access to basic social infrastructure including water, transport and electricity also helps.
Compulsory education for all, especially girls, and all that goes to making this happen is therefore a key intervention for our policy makers to deliver on.
4. Multi-sectoral programme approaches and partnerships
Given the multiple consequences of child marriage, a multi-sectoral and multi-pronged approach is the most effective way to address this issue. Building alliances and working through partnerships and networks with multiple role players is key: together government agencies, civil society, researchers, traditional leaders, leaders of faith, human rights activists and young people must be at the frontline to make the change happen. The synergy of efforts will ensure effective policy and programme development, adequate financial investments for implementation and strong accountability.
5. Research, data collection systems including civil registration and south-south sharing of good practices and lessons learnt.
Finally, the need for evidence-based policy making requires support from research and important yet neglected age-specific disaggregated population data and robust civil registration and vital statistic systems that will provide both qualitative and quantitative information in support of ending child marriage.
Further, the sharing of good efforts and innovation on how countries are ending child marriage would help enhance our policy and programme delivery.
In conclusion, the data makes it clear that child marriage is first and foremost a grave threat to young girls’ lives, health and future prospects and a breach of girls’ fundamental human rights. The costs of inaction, in terms of rights unrealized, foreshortened personal potential and lost development opportunities, far outweigh the costs of interventions. This is a smart African investment. Together we can end child marriage, it is happening in Ethiopia, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Mauritania, Niger and in so many other countries.
As a continent in transformation we need the contribution of all our daughters, sons, granddaughters and grandsons for its prosperity. Let us make it possible.
