Let’s act with urgency and a collective commitment to end child marriage in Ghana. ~ ActionAid Ghana

ActionAid Ghana hosted the Upper West Regional Multi-Stakeholder Conference on Child Marriage on August 22 under the theme, “Addressing the root causes of girl-child marriage: the role of stakeholders."

According to UNICEF data on child marriage, an estimated 640 million girls and women alive today were married in childhood. UNICEF further indicates that the organisation indicates that nearly half of child brides live in South Asia (45 percent), with the next largest share in sub-Saharan Africa (20 percent), followed by East Asia and the Pacific (15 percent), and Latin America and the Caribbean (9 percent).Declines in the level of child marriage are not occurring at a fast enough pace to reach the SDG target of eliminating the practice by 2030. In 2015, global leaders included a target to end child marriage under this SDG. At the regional level, African leaders have also shown their commitment to ending child marriage. This was evident in 2014, when the African Union (AU) launched a two-year continental campaign to end child marriage. In 2015, the AU and the Government of Zambia convened a high-level girl’s summit to enhance continental awareness of the effects of child marriage and accelerate the end of child marriage in Africa, and this resulted in a renewed commitment to eliminating child marriage in Africa no later than 2030.

In a bid to deliberate on the root causes of the age-long violence of child marriage against girls, ActionAid Ghana and stakeholders met with survivors to outline strategies to help reduce the menace while curbing it.

Available statistics have revealed that progress would need to be nearly 20 times faster to reach the target of ending child marriage by 2030. Marriage before the age of 18 is a fundamental violation of human rights. Many factors interact to place a child at risk of marriage, including poverty, the perception that marriage will provide ‘protection’, family honour, social norms, customary or religious laws that condone the practice, an inadequate legislative framework, and the state of a country’s civil registration system. Child marriage among girls across the globe is highest in West and Central Africa, where nearly 4 in 10 young women were married before age 18. Globally, an estimated 12 million girls are married before the age of 18 every year. If we do not intensify our efforts, more than 120 million girls will marry by the end of this decade, most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Ghana.

There have been deliberate actions to combat this growing menace as a country. Some of these actions include the launch of an Ending Child Marriage Campaign in 2014 through the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection, which subsequently developed the National Strategic Framework on Ending Child Marriage in Ghana 2017–2026’ to serve as an operational document that mirrors Ghana’s pledge to end child marriage and teenage pregnancy. Also, there were other policy documents such as the National Gender Policy, the Justice for Children Policy (2016), the Child and Family Welfare Policy (2015), and the 1998 Children’s Act. However, the growing trends and available statistics indicate that the practice persists and requires more steady and strategic work to be done for total eradication.

As a social justice organisation, ActionAid Ghana has championed this campaign for zero child marriage by dedicating resources and expertise over the past three decades. AAG worked closely with education stakeholders to establish and train over 100 girls’ through its’ empowerment and advocacy platforms (also known as girls clubs) with over 4000 memberships across basic schools in Jirapa, Lambussie, and Sissala East. With trained patrons providing mentorship, education on rights, self-esteem, reproductive health rights, and confidence-building sessions to create their awareness and confidence to report cases of rights violations, ActionAid has facilitated role-modelling sessions with these girls’ clubs by women professionals who have excelled in their careers to motivate and encourage them to stay away from child marriage and focus on their education.

Furthermore, AAG has also trained and formed 82 Community-Based Anti-Violence Teams (COMBATs) on basic human rights laws across Sissala East, Lambussie, Jirapa, Lawra, and Wa East to provide community-level sensitisation against violence, including child marriage. Between 2012 and 2015, there were 169 child marriage cases recorded and rescued by these COMBATs in collaboration with other state actors, while 26 cases were captured from COMBATs in Sissala East and Lawra during the 2023 review with some perpetrators being apprehended.

In a recent development, AAG, through its intervention activity, collaborated with the Ghana Education Service in Jirapa, Sissala East, and Lambussie to provide professional guidance and counselling for girls. This follows some research work that resulted in the profiling of 84 girls who were identified as survivors of child marriage, teenage pregnancy, and teen mothers. Out of the 84 profiles, 57 turned up for counselling.

To further support young people, ActionAid Ghana has developed a toolkit titled "The ABCs of Reproductive Health: Random Questions High Schoolers Ask," designed to provide accurate, age-appropriate information on reproductive health for young people.

In a bid to strengthen effective collaboration to collectively combat this menace, the conference comes at the right time. ActionAid Ghana prioritises collaboration, alliance building, and dialoguing with key stakeholders to drive social justice, hence the reason for the Regional Stakeholder Conference.

According to John Nkaw, Country Director, “Child marriage trend is reducing but not at a good rate. but the practice persists in some communities. The fight against child marriage requires a comprehensive and multi-stakeholder approach, aligning with SDG 17 and emphasising the importance of partnerships in achieving sustainable development. We cannot afford to delay. Every day without decisive action is another day in which a girl's future is compromised”.

Deliberating on the records, ActionAid Ghana acknowledged that the Children's Act of 1998 and the Domestic Violence Act of 2007 provide a solid foundation for safeguarding children and women. More recently, the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill marks a critical milestone in our collective effort to promote gender equality and protect the rights of women and girls.

Peter Maala, the Chief Director, Upper West Regional Coordinating Council, affirmed that, “The rights of children especially girls must be prioritised now more than ever. Reiterating that survivors of child marriage and teenage pregnancies must be given some compensation for the loss of having to experience their lives and education truncated; hence, the legal systems must be strengthened to enforce the laws in communities.’’

The conference was attended by stakeholders from government institutions, like-minded NGOs, rights protection agencies, survivors and teenage mothers.