00:00This is apropos. Well, this Monday is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against
00:08Women and so far today more than 30,000 children have been married somewhere around the world.
00:15Every three seconds a girl is forced into marriage. Robbing children of agency and bodily
00:21autonomy, the practice also undermines their emotional, sexual and reproductive health.
00:28Every three seconds, somewhere in the world, a girl child gets married. That's the data
00:37provided by UNICEF, the UN's children agency, who are tasked that every year 12 million
00:42girls under the age of 18 become child brides worldwide. Many factors often interact to
00:49place a girl at risk of child marriage. They often come from poor backgrounds, rural areas
00:55or marginalised groups. Factors like poverty, lack of education and social or religious
01:00norms all play a part. Families may marry off their daughters, believing it to reduce
01:05economic burden. Others may believe it will protect their daughters or secure their futures.
01:11The girls are thus more likely to be out of school than their peers and robbed of the
01:14chance of an education, a childhood and a future. These girls are also made more vulnerable
01:19to discrimination and domestic violence. Also accompanied by early and frequent pregnancy
01:24and childbirth, contributing to higher than average maternal mortality rates.
01:30The past decade, however, has seen global initiatives make waves in the 12 nations where
01:34child marriage is most prevalent. 25 million child marriages have been prevented globally
01:40due to stronger female education, government investment and public awareness. Despite this,
01:46the prevalence of child marriage remains high, with sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia having
01:51the highest statistics of underage brides.
01:55South Asia may be home to 44% of the world's child brides, but it's also seen the greatest
02:00decline in child marriage in recent decades. A UNICEF report published last year found
02:05that the percentage of child marriages had dropped from 23% to 19% worldwide. But the
02:12UN agency said it's still not fast enough to achieve the goal of eliminating the practice
02:16by 2030. UNICEF estimates no region is currently on track to meet this target.
02:24Globally 139 countries lack adequate legislation prohibiting child marriage to discuss. We're
02:31joined now by Dr Faith Mwangi-Powell, CEO of Girls Not Brides, a global network of more
02:37than 1,400 civil society organizations. Dr Faith, thank you so much for being with us
02:43on the program this evening. We saw some of the statistics rather shocking in that
02:48report there by Vedika. There has been a decline in child marriage, experts say, over the past
02:54decade, but it remains widespread. You say 12 million children are married around the
02:59world each year and that collective action is needed to tackle this. What exactly is
03:05needed?
03:07Thank you so much for having me. Just for our viewers, it's to say child marriage or
03:12child early and forced marriage and union is any marriage or union between two people
03:18where one of them is less than 18 years old. And I agree that progress is happening. There
03:24is great work happening all over the world, but we need more. What we are asking for is
03:29stronger registration across the countries we work, asking governments to support reinforcing
03:36the law. Many governments have enacted laws, but we want those laws reinforced. We also
03:42want domestic financing. We cannot continue relying on external funding. We want government
03:48to fund some of the national strategies they have developed, but we also want to make sure
03:54we safeguard girl education. There are still too many girls who are out of school, and
03:59when girls are out of school, the most likely option for them is child marriage. So we want
04:05to continue encouraging governments to act, but not to act alone, to see civil society
04:11and community leaders and parents and teachers, everybody has a role to play. And that is
04:17what we are talking about when we speak about collective action. And I agree with you, there
04:23is no country which is on track. And in this era, we really want to see child marriage
04:28added so that communities and girls all over the world can live and fulfil their full potential
04:36and the dreams of the people they need to be. And who is most at risk then of child
04:42marriage? It mostly affects girls, but it can also affect young boys. We have seen in
04:48areas like Latin America, there are child unions, which are unions between girls and
04:53boys. But largely, child marriage and forced union affect girls. And mainly it's because
05:01of how girls are valued in communities. Girls are not as valued as boys. And that value,
05:07that gender inequality, where girls are not treated as equal to boys, really puts them
05:12at greater risk of vulnerabilities. Girls are also seen as the right people, the default
05:19of household chores, so that they are denied the opportunity to go to school, they are
05:24held back. And that holding back of girls means that they are more at risk of child
05:29marriage. So while I agree that boys are also at risk, mainly child marriage affects girls
05:36all over the world. And you speak about how societal and cultural norms make girls essentially
05:42less valuable in some cultures than boys. But how do you change those norms? The biggest
05:49thing to change is community dialogue. We need to communicate, we need to discuss with
05:55allies, with communities where child marriage is practised, and to demonstrate the value
06:00of girls. We need role models in communities, girls who have gone to school, girls who can
06:06then come and be productive members of the community. So it's addressing, and I know
06:10I'm using a bit of jargon, it's addressing the social norms or the cultural norms which
06:15are up in this practice. You go to some communities and they tell you, this is what happened to
06:21my grandmother, this is what happened to my mother, this is what's going to happen to
06:25my children. And it's trying to break that cycle, but through community dialogue and
06:31also providing alternatives and education. I always say education is not the, there is
06:38not silver bullet to end child marriage, but education comes really close because we
06:44have seen when girls go to school, when they are given those opportunities to really fulfil
06:50their own dreams, then we come close to ending child marriage. And even the declines you
06:55talked about earlier, those declines have been realised because girls have more access
07:01to education. And Faith, the situation varies depending on which country we look at. There's
07:06been progress in Sierra Leone, for example, legislation passed there this year to end
07:11child marriage. The situation is much worse in places like Iraq, where new laws there
07:15could make it legal for girls as young as nine to be married. But this isn't an issue
07:20that just affects countries in the developing world, is it? No, this is actually an issue
07:26for globally, which is affecting countries all over the world. Even in the UK here, where
07:32I'm based, I'm based in London. It's only last year where the law was changed that girls
07:37cannot be married below the age of 18. It was okay for girls to be married at the age
07:43of 16 with a parental consent. So that law has now changed. It has changed in England
07:50and in England and Wales. We are still working to change that law in Scotland. In the US,
07:56there are several states where they don't have laws. It's state by state. I know our
08:00partners and CHAID at last are working state by state to change the laws that girls can
08:06be married above the age of 18. And I want to also acknowledge the great work which has
08:12happened in Sierra Leone. Great championship by the Minister of Education and Minister
08:17of Health. And what they have done is to not only introduce a law which prohibits child
08:22marriage by the age of 18, they have also allowed married girls to be able to re-enter
08:28education, to be able to go to school. And by doing that, they are breaking the cycle
08:34of child marriage, which is incredible. And that is what we are asking governments and
08:40countries to do, to make sure that we also do not forget the married girls. What is the
08:45opportunity for the married girls to secure their own future? Those are some of the things
08:49we are asking governments to look into as well.
08:53And what can be learned from countries like that then? Also in places like South Asia,
08:57it's on pace to eliminate child marriage almost completely in about 50 years or so.
09:04I think what we can learn, it's also to recognize that child marriage is very contextual, is
09:10to say that we can learn from the countries which are adding child marriage, but we also
09:14need to understand the drivers in each context. We need to understand where poverty can be
09:20a great driver, where social norm, religious practices can be a great driver. Once we understand
09:27that, then we really start addressing those root cause and championing and partnering
09:33with religious leaders, traditional leaders, parliaments, because by doing that, then we
09:38are really going to the heart of the decision makers or the norm holders, if you like.
09:44But in Asia, what we have seen, the greatest reason why we have seen this decline is greater
09:49access to education. And you talked about that at the start. But also what we are seeing
09:54is that the most marginalized and the poor girls are still at very, very high risk. So
10:01the big challenge now we have is reaching the girls who are most marginalized, those
10:07who are living under the poverty line, those who are living in rural areas. Those are the
10:12girls we really need to target, because at the urban areas, we are really seeing progress
10:18as girls have greater access to education.
10:22At the UN agency UNICEF, it says that conflict, climate shock, economic problems, other crises
10:28are threatening to reverse some of the progress that we are seeing in some of the countries
10:33we've been speaking about. Is that something you'd agree with?
10:36Absolutely. We've seen, we're actually calling it the poli-crisis right now, because we are
10:41seeing even when COVID happens, the school closures. There are some countries like Uganda
10:46where schools were closed for over two years. And that really put so many girls at risk.
10:53Teenage pregnancy went up. And when girls got pregnant, that predisposes them to marriage.
10:59We have seen climate change when there is drought, when there is no food insecurity.
11:05Parents sometimes choose to marry off girls so that they have less children to feed. We
11:10have also seen this migration and conflict, areas of conflict. We have seen those girls
11:16really are greater vulnerabilities for child marriage. So we are seeing what we are calling
11:21a poli-crisis. And that poli-crisis, we need to really respond and be conscious that in
11:27different communities, food security is important. Climate mitigation is important. Making sure
11:34there is cash transfers to mitigate poverty so that girls can go back to school. So there
11:39are different ways we can address this, but absolutely you are right that these crises
11:45are putting girls at greater risk. And of course boys as well in communities where there
11:52are unions of boys and girls, it's putting these young people at risk.
11:57Faith, we'll have to leave it there for now, but thank you so much for your time on the
12:00programme with us this evening. That is Dr Faith Mwangi-Powell, CEO of Girls Not Brides.
12:07Thank you so much for having me.
12:09Thank you. Well, that is it.
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