WUNRN
PRESS RELEASE: Education for girls is crucial to end
child marriage but must be part of a broader effort, urge NGOs
17 April 2013
Getting the world’s 32 million out-of-school girls back
into education will be crucial to end child marriage, state a group of
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on the eve of a high level roundtable on
child marriage, but emphasise that there is no single solution to end a
practice that denies an estimated 14 million girls a year their rights to
health, education, choice and security.
Finance and education ministers from eight developing
countries will gather in
Members of Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to
End Child Marriage invited to a parallel roundtable discussion on how to
address child marriage welcome this week’s meetings and call upon the education
community to recognise that progress on global education goals cannot be made
without tackling child marriage.
Girls Not Brides members invited to the child marriage roundtable include World Vision, the
World YWCA, as well as CARE USA, International Center for Research on Women,
and the International Women’s Health Coalition representing the Girls Not
Brides USA Partnership.
To end child marriage, education must be accessible, good
quality, safe and girl-friendly
One of the clearest indications of our success or failure
on international development goals will be the number of girls who have been
married as children. The reality is that when girls are married young, their
education and other opportunities to live a safe, healthy and empowered life,
come to an end.
Girls Not Brides members invited to the child marriage roundtable emphasise that keeping girls in
school is critical to delaying the age of marriage. However, if
education is to be a successful tool to help girls avoid early marriage, they
need to have access to quality education and schools that are safe and
girl-friendly. This must be available at the critical transition from primary
to secondary schooling, a time when school dropout rates for girls escalate.
Education initiatives that help girls to avoid child
marriage must include awareness-raising campaigns for parents and community
leaders on the benefits of girls’ education, scholarship programmes for girls,
female mentors and teachers, equipping schools with sex-segregated toilets and
providing training for teachers on how to ensure a safe environment for all
students.
The NGOs also warn education ministers not to overlook
the 400 million girls and women who have already been married as children, and
who have often been forced to drop out of school, unable to complete their
education. Governments should ensure re-integration of married girls, who may
be mothers, into formal schooling and other non-formal educational
opportunities.
Education alone is not enough to end child marriage.
Cooperation is needed across government ministries and with civil society to
end the practice.
“We know that child marriage is holding back progress in
girls’ education and we welcome the education community’s growing interest in
tackling this issue,” says Sarah Kambou, President of the
“To achieve long-term change on issues like child
marriage,” adds Lakshmi Sundaram, Global Coordinator, Girls Not Brides,
“we need to ensure that large-scale structural efforts aimed at other goals
such as health and poverty reduction, as well as education, are making the
connection with child marriage prevention.”
The NGOs invited to the child marriage roundtable will
urge the education and finance ministers to cooperate with ministries across
their government, including ministries of health, justice, and social affairs,
to make sure that ending child marriage is integrated throughout their social
programming. They also urge governments to enforce minimum age of marriage laws
and to implement legal, policy, administrative and other measures to end child,
early and forced marriage in a single generation.
The NGOs will urge participating governments to partner
with the civil society organisations working directly with adolescent girls,
men and boys, religious leaders and their wider communities to scale up this
work across regions and countries.
“Changing cultural practices and attitudes that allow
child marriage to continue takes years, and requires a deep and lasting
commitment to work with families and communities to make change happen,” says Denise
Allen, World Vision International.
“By reaching out to communities and empowering the girls
vulnerable to child marriage, we can begin to counter the idea that girls are
somehow of lesser value,” says Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, General Secretary of
the World YWCA. “It will take time but we must address the root causes of
child, early and forced marriage, including poverty and gender inequality.”
Substantial support needed from donor governments
Donor governments and institutions should also play an
active role in efforts to end child marriage.
“Child marriage is not a problem that just affects the
eight countries represented at this meeting. It is a global problem,” states Jennifer
Redner of the International Women’s Health Coalition and co-chair of Girls
Not Brides USA. “In countries where it is practiced, child marriage
undermines efforts to alleviate poverty, reduce maternal and infant deaths, and
tackle violence against women and girls. Donors, national governments,
multilateral agencies and the private sector need to commit substantial
resources to prevent and respond to child marriage.”
Child marriage must feature in post-2015 development
framework
The needs and rights of adolescent girls were largely
unaddressed in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), argue the group of
NGOs. To rectify this in the new development framework currently under
discussion, participating governments at the meeting are called on to advocate
for rates of child marriage to be included as an indicator of the welfare of
adolescent girls.
“There are few clearer indicators of how adolescent girls
are faring in a country than its rate of child marriage,” says Lakshmi
Sundaram, Global Coordinator, Girls Not Brides. “By ensuring that
ending child marriage is included in the new development goals, we can keep
track of how well we are all doing in ensuring that adolescent girls can
thrive.”