AU bets on Spotlight Initiative to end child marriage

The African Union (AU) is implementing an elaborate initiative aimed at taming child marriage on the continent.

According to the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), about 130 million girls in Africa have been married in their childhood.

In sub-Saharan Africa, a staggering 40 per cent of girls marry before age 18, and African countries account for 15 of the 20 countries with the highest rates of child marriage.

It is for this reason that the AU is implementing an ambitious programme, dubbed Spotlight Initiative, to end all forms of violence against women and girls by 2030 with a particular emphasis on child marriage.

Besides community campaigns, the initiative seeks to strengthen legislation and policies of member states. It is also assisting in the generation of quality and reliable data to support the fight.

The €500 million programme is being supported by the European Union and the United Nations (UN). It involves deploying targeted, large-scale investments in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Pacific to empower, promote, and protect the rights of women and girls.

In Africa, it aims to eliminate sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), including harmful practices, and it will scale up existing initiatives on fighting female genital mutilation and child marriage.

Taking Stand Against GBV

In Zimbabwe, for example, a group of young volunteers, known as Innovators Against Gender-Based Violence, developed a WhatsApp group called ‘Taking a Stand Against GBV’ to educate, inform, discuss, and provide referral services to survivors of child marriage and women experiencing SGBV during the Covid-19 crisis.

The AU has taken the matter to end harmful practice and is enlisting the help of stakeholders.

Last month, the African Union Commission (AUC) held a media training in Sensitive Reporting on Harmful Practices for journalists from Eastern and Southern Africa in Nairobi.

The main objective was to enhance awareness, garner support for advocacy-based reporting and mobilise social behavioural changes at all levels against the traditional practices.

Addressing journalists last month when she officially opened a media training, Ms Nena Thundu, the coordinator of the Ending Harmful Practices at the AUC, said the media are key to making the campaign a success. She noted growing evidence that access to information is critical in ending harmful cultural practices.

Also read: AU launches drive against child brides

Ms Thundu said the AU is committed to fighting the practices, which, she said, are the leading atrocities committed against women and girls on the continent.

Dr Edward Addai, the director of Unicef Liaison Office in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia, appealed to the media to amplify the challenges preventing children, especially girls, from realising their full potential.

Dr Addai observed that if things continue as they are, the realisation of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 on eliminating such harmful practices will remain a mirage.

“The good news is that we know what we need to do to end child marriage and FGM in Africa. The media need to hold everyone, who is involved in the fight against these harmful practices, accountable and keep the conversation going. The media should also ensure their reporting is ethical, is of public interest and is to the best interest of the child.”

Worrying statistics

Unicef indicates that about 14 million adolescent and teen girls are married every year, with the majority of them being forced into the arrangement by their parents. The highest number of these child brides are in Africa.

Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread, persistent and devastating human rights violations in the world today, with one in three women worldwide experiencing physical or sexual violence.

Women and girls are disproportionately subjected to violence, including femicide, sexual violence, intimate partner violence, trafficking and harmful practices.

Niger has the highest child marriage rate in the world. According to recent data, in this West African country 75 per cent of girls aged under 18 were married, with 36 per cent of them aged 15 and below.

Chad, Bangladesh, and Guinea had rates ranging from 63 per cent to 68 per cent. This issue is globally spread, particularly in African countries.

In many of these countries, the legal age to get married is lower for females than for males. In Niger and Chad, for instance, the legal age is 15 years for females and 18 for males.

In Guinea, instead, the legal age for marriage is 17 for females and 18 for males. However, child marriage rates are considerably high.

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