This is an indicative strategy in African Union Agenda 2063: Aspiration 6 Goal 18: Engaged and Empowered Youth and Children: Priority Area 1: 


Indicative Strategy at the National Level:

20. Eradicate all forms of gender-based violence and harmful practices against women and girls, especially child, early and forced marriages and FGM (Female Genital Mutilation).


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Based on publications by the International Center for Research on Women, child brides often show signs symptomatic of sexual abuse and post-traumatic stress such as feelings of hopelessness, helplessness and severe depression.

Zambian President Edgar Lungu is African Union Leader on Ending Child Marriage in Africa.


President Lungu Shows His Dancing Skills
President Lungu Shows His Dancing Skills: Match the Style to sensitize  the Campaign to end of Child Marriage in Africa.

CHILD MARRIAGE
It is a tragedy in any culture or religion.

The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) defines a child as a person under the age of 18 years, and the African Youth Charter defines a minor as a person between the ages of 15-17.

Child marriage is a human rights violation that prevents girls from obtaining an education, enjoying optimal health, bonding with others their own age, maturing, and ultimately choosing own whom they wish to marry. 

Africa's population of girls under 18 is predicted to rise from 275 million today - 25 percent of the global total - to 465 million by 2050, 38 percent of the total. 

Africa has the second highest rates of child marriage in the world after South Asia. At least 30 percent of girls are forced into becoming wives before age 18.

Driven by poverty and cultural norms, the multiple effects on girls' health range from increased risk for sexually transmitted diseases, cervical cancer, malaria, death during childbirth, and obstetric fistulas. Girls' offspring are  at increased risk for premature birth and death as neonates, infants, or children.

In a recent report, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said the number of child brides in Africa will more than double by 2050 if current trends persist because of rapid population growth and limited social change. Africa will overtake South Asia as the region with the largest number of child brides.

"The sheer number of girls affected, and what this means in terms of lost childhoods, and shattered futures, underline the urgency of banning the practice of child marriage once and for all," UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said in a statement at the start of a two-day African Union Summit in 2015 on ending child marriage. "Each child bride is an individual tragedy.

In May 2014 AU launched a two campaign to end child marriage in  Africa and the AU Commission developed a four day course to redress Child  Marriage and other harmful practice. 

More Member States rose to the challenge to eliminate the tragedy but the malady continues.

To stop child marriage, policies and  programs must educate communities, raise awareness, engage local and religious leaders, involve parents, and empower girls through education and social support. 

We must also use innovative means....LIKE THE PRESIDENT EDGAR LUNGU DANCE CHALLENGE THAT A CROSS SECTION OF WOMEN BEGAN PROMOTING.

An inspiring story...


The lady, Theresa Kachindamoto, is a senior chief in the Dedza District in Central Malawi and wields power over close to 900,000 constituents. She does not blink in using her authority to help the women and girls in her district. Her no- nonsense attitude and effective measures have made her a vital ally in the fight for women's and children's rights.

More than fifteen years ago, she could not have conceived of ever leaving her job of 27 years as a secretary at a city college in Zomba, another district in Southern Malawi, to become a Senior Chief. However, the decision is proving fateful in the larger African society.

While marrying under age 18 in Malawi has been illegal since early 2015, one of two children is a child bride and girls can still be married under a so-called "customary law," with parental consent and acknowledged by tradition. This happens in other African communities where cultures escape  the radar of the law.

As if it is not enough, in Malawi, the girls are sent to sexual initiation camps where they have to go through certain "cleansing rituals" and are taught how to please their husbands.



The Chief  got fed up with 12-year-old girls walking around with babies on the hips and took action, requiring 50 of her sub-chiefs to sign an agreement to end child marriage in her jurisdiction. "I told them: 'Whether you like it or not, I want these marriages to be terminated ,' Chief Kachindamoto told the news outlet. 

But she didn't stop there: She made the leaders annul any existing underage unions and send all of the children involved back to school, according to the Nyasa Times.

When four male chiefs continued to approve underage marriages, Chief Kachindamoto suspended them as a warning to others, only hiring them back once they confirmed they had annulled the unions. 

In June 2015 alone, she annulled more than 300 child marriages. And over the past three years, the figure reaches close to 850.

In a place where poverty is rampant, the intervention of traditional authority figures in matters of socio-economic importance is not well received. But being fully aware and deeply troubled by the fate of the girls of her jurisdiction, Chief native land, Chief Kachindamoto was determined to confront the plight. 

She started by spreading awareness about education and the need to educate the girl child. She appealed to parents to discontinue the practice of sending their daughters to the initiation camps, and pleaded with them to send the girls to schools instead.

The obstacles she faced are similar in other African areas, including from the parents. They consider their girl child a burden take care of and the sooner they are married off, the financial crisis will be lessened. 

They failed to comprehend what the traditional authority was talking about. How could investing huge sums of money in their daughter's education uplift their financial conditions? And could they even manage to pay for their education with their meager salaries? These were the questions in the parents' minds.

"First, it was difficult, but now people are understanding," Chief Kachindamoto said. To ensure children are not being pulled out of  school, she operates a network of parents to keep an eye on others. And when parents can't afford to pay school fees, she'll pay them herself or find someone else who can.

The lesson here is that when Chief Kachindamoto realized that revolutionizing the mentality was proving difficult she decided to revolutionize both the customary standards and the law. She has not only banned the cleansing rituals but has also passed a law forbidding marriage before the age of 18. 

"I don't want youthful marriages," Chief Kachindamoto told U.N. Women. "They must go to school. No child should be found at home or doing household chores during school time." The incidence in Malawi is symptomatic in Africa and the lesson can be replicated: Hail to the Chief.

Increased awareness of the relational aspects of gender suggests that a comprehensive, evidence-based response to child marriage should engage not only women but also men and boys - fathers, brothers, uncles, and future husbands and fathers-in-law of the girls, traditional focus on programmatic outreach, and also the engagement of cultural rulers who endorse the practice as tradition.

Organize No Child Bride interactive sessions with traditional rulers, community leaders, women groups and policy makers for participants to understand the issues of child marriage within the broad framework of social development and alignment with the key goals and impact objectives of the AU Campaign to End Child Marriage in Africa.