Every three seconds, a girl is forced into marriage, according to Unicef figures. Robbing children of agency and bodily autonomy, the practice also undermines their emotional, sexual and reproductive health. Dr Faith Mwangi-Powell, CEO of Girls Not Brides, says that progress is happening, but stronger legislation is needed to enforce the laws. She also stresses the need to safeguard girls' education, whose absence often leads to child marriage.
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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.