Malawi has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, with approximately 1 in 2 girls married by the age of 18. According to UNICEF 2016 statistics, 46% of girls get married before the age of 18 and this places the country at number 11 on international rankings of child marriage prevalence.

In 2024, GOFAO in partnership with Firelight launched a project at Nyengere community with the aim of ending child marriages in the community. These are the key themes in the project.

• Explore the root causes of child marriage in  Nyengere community

• Engage communities to explore their own perceptions of girls’ rights, parenting and child marriage

• Map the relevant root causes, stakeholders and systems drivers

• Run holistic, multi-faceted, community-driven and community-actioned programs to address the root causes of child marriage

• Engage families, parents, adolescent girls and communities (including community leaders) in the fight against child marriage

• Engage with critical government stakeholders to strengthen the systems that prevent and address child marriage

Our  goals for this initiative are –

• To  empower the community  and critical stakeholders to address child marriage

• To see increased community awareness around and sustained action against child marriage

• To learn what works and what does not in sustaining reductions in child marriage

• To achieve reductions in child marriage in the area

• OBJECTIVES

 

1.  To catalyze community-driven, girl-centered solutions that address the key drivers that contribute to child marriage.t

2. To advocate for and institute systematic changes in policies, practices, and social norms to reduce child marriage locally.

 

 

OUR VISION IN THIS PROJECT

 

• Strengthened capacity to engage families and communities to fight child marriages

• Strengthened capacity to advocate for systemic change

• Strengthened capacity to involve girls and other critical stakeholders in fighting child marriages

• Strengthened capacity in our organizational systems

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• Increased awareness of and action to protect girls’ rights in communities where child marriage is currently practiced

• Critical stakeholders from adolescent girls to community leaders to parents empowered to protect girls’ rights and prevent child marriage

• Better systems, policies, actions and norms supported by families, girls, community leaders and governments to prevent and respond to child marriage

• Reductions in child marriage and the drivers that lead to it

• A demonstrated model of support for community-driven solutions in the fight against child marriage

Target Group: Adolescent girls

Envisioned Changes: Reducing child marriage has a major impact on girls’ welfare and rights.

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• Girls have an awareness of and the personal and collective empowerment to claim their rights

• Girls have information and power to make positive decisions that affect their lives and reduce their chance of child marriage –such as staying in school, advocating to their parents for support, seeking a vocational career

• Girls have advocates in the community and trusted adults and peers they can talk to and get support from before/during/after a child marriage occurs

• Girls have financial literacy to enable them to become financially independent in order to avoid the frequent financial pressures to marry as a child or to recover from a child marriage if they have been a victim

• Girls develop confidence and self-esteem to prevent child marriage directly in their home of family environment or to engage other stakeholders in the community to prevent child marriage

• Girls develop leadership skills and are empowered to advocate for change in local, district or national policies and social norms that negatively affect them

Target Group: Families

Envisioned Changes:

• Parents who know about the rights of children and their role in upholding these rights

• Open communication between parents and children on issues that affect children

• Positive action on the part of families to reduce child marriage rates

Target Group: Communities

Envisioned Changes:

• Communities that are able to put in mechanisms and systems to protect girls from child marriages

• Communities who are able to advocate and lobby for gender-sensitive laws or budgeting that protect girls from child marriages

Target Group: Government

Envisioned Changes:

• Government stakeholders at the local, district and national level are more aware of their legal obligation to prevent child marriage

• Government stakeholders are more responsive to the drivers of and instances of child marriage