A Feature by Christabel Addo
Accra, July 29, GNA- Additional efforts may be required to accelerate progress towards achieving the 2030 target of the UN Global Programme to End Child Marriage (CM) and other Harmful Practices (HPs).
This is important because with virtually seven years to reach the target, most countries including Ghana, are still grappling with issues of CM, despite recorded progress in some countries and regions.
Studies have shown that the menace still exists in many countries worldwide and remains high in all African countries.
The practice is usually embedded in the culture and religious practices of some communities, and also gender inequalities stemming from the cultural construction of gender.
CHILD MARRIAGE/LEGISLATIONS
Child marriage is referred to by law as any formal or informal union, where one of the parties is a minor or below the age of 18 years, (Children’s Act of 1998, Act 560, Section 1), and Section 14 of the Act, makes it illegal for any child under 18 years to enter, be forced into marriage, or “betrothed to be the subject of a dowry transaction.”
It is a devastating Human Rights that rob many girls of their childhood, education and health, and though the menace is punishable under the Criminal Offences Act of 1960, and other international Conventions like the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, most perpetrators often escape the law due to interferences from families and some community leadership.
Child marriage contravenes the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), making it impossible for countries to address problems like gender equality, poverty, maternal and child mortality, and morbidities, or achieve goals regarding universal primary education and women empowerment without increased efforts.
Yet, women and girls remain subjects of CM, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) including Domestic Violence (DV), Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), as in some regions these have become norms.
Data from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) show that more than 650 million women and girls living today, were married or entered into informal unions before their 18th birthday, and 19 per cent of women between the ages of 20 and 24 were married to or were living with a partner before age 18.
The Gender Department of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP), notes that regardless of legislations and punitive measures, CM persists in pockets of communities nationwide, and remains high within the three northern regions (Upper East, Upper West, Northern), due to the lax in law enforcement.
Ghana’s current CM prevalence rate is 19 per cent, meaning (1 in 5 girls) marry before their 18th birthday and in the three northern regions, it affects one in three girls, according to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2017/2018.
INTERVENTIONS
Notwithstanding, the UNFPA, which is the UN Agency for Sexual and Reproductive Health, has since 2016, been pushing for partnerships, policies, legislations, programmes and the implementation of global activities that upholds the rights, health, dignity and safety of women and girls.
The Agency is currently implementing the Global Programme on Ending CM in collaboration with the United Nations Child Funds (UNICEF), in 12 countries, where various Projects are being pursued in selected regions and districts across the country.
UNFPA Ghana is working with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, (MoGCSP), Regional Coordinating Councils (RCC) and Ghana Health Service (GHS), Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG), Purim African Youth Development Platform (PAYDP), International Needs Ghana (INGH), and selected communities, to identify the root causes of this unfair treatment against women and girls and develop workable strategies for redress.
These Projects and activities seek to engage to empower adolescent girls and boys, through a ‘Safe Space System’ with accurate and life-changing information on their sexuality, health and rights, so they can advocate for themselves and even persuade their families to delay their engagements for marriage among other things.
Mr Fisal Bawa, the Programme Analyst for Gender-Based Violence at UNFPA Ghana, applauds the Government, implementing partners, civil society and communities for their contributions towards the present decline in the percentage of child brides, but said “Unfortunately, change is happening too slowly.”
Mr Bawa, who spoke to the Media and Communication Advocacy Network correspondent at the Ghana News Agency, on the sideline of a recent Co-creation for Intervention Design and capacity building workshop at Cape Coast, said despite the reduction in percentages, the actual number of girls who were getting married was becoming a concern.
“Looking at the youthful population of Ghana, if we don’t drastically act now, we may be reducing the percentages, but the actual number of child brides will remain high.”
He called for accelerated actions regardless of the present reduction, saying “We are ensuring that while we reduce the percentage, we also bring down the actual number of girls who are getting married.”
Mr Bawa said aside from policy development and advocacy at the national level and sub-national levels, UNFPA Ghana had done a lot of community engagements and advocacy with traditional, religious and opinion leaders, to achieve changes from the negative cultural practices and norms.
Mr Caesar Kaba Kogoziga, the Programmes Coordinator at PPAG, said that supported by UNFPA, the Association was implementing the Child Marriage Free Community Alert Campaign (CMFCAC) in 30 communities of six districts in the Volta and Northern regions, for awareness creation and empowerment to stop these practices.
The Campaign engages community members to proactively take action for prevention, using Child Marriage Alert Flags which are hoisted during a community durbar at a visible site within the area, to declare a collective effort to end child marriage.
The chiefs are then made to sign a pledge card on behalf of the community, to indicate their commitment to supporting the wellbeing of adolescent girls, preventing child marriages and co-habitation.
“With that when there is any indication or incident of child marriage or co-habitation, the flag is lowered at half-mast and all relevant stakeholders are alerted to intervene. The flag only flies fully again after the successful rescue of the adolescent girl,” he said.
IMPACT/ LESSONS
Mr Kogoziga said since the intervention, none of the 30 beneficiary communities had reported any incidence of child marriage, due to the advanced community support and participation, leading to enhanced gender equality and the protection of women and girls.
“Some community level bye-laws have been formulated prescribing local punishments for perpetrators of these offences,” adding that the campaign is also a good signal for self-evaluation at the community level on the commitment and progress in the fight against child marriage.
To effectively tackle Child Marriage, key community leaders like traditional leaders must all play an active role in improving awareness and alertness of communities in Child Marriage and increase stakeholder collaboration and ownership.
He said some of the lessons learnt are that many adolescent girls are opting for cohabitation and early marriage as a means to escape from family or domestic abuse, which stresses that fathers’ influence on family decisions remains crucial.
He called for sustained community support of the interventions to help accelerate actions that address root causes such as economic hardships, lack of skills and unemployment to ensure improved livelihood for the youth and families.
Similarly, INGH, has been implementing the Promoting Adolescent Girls’ Safe Spaces (PASS) project in 48 selected communities in the Cape Coast Metropolis, the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem Municipality and the Mfantsiman District in the Central Region of Ghana.
Ms Vera Elikem Awuye, the Senior Programme Officer, INGH, said the Project had recorded many positive results over the last five years, with over 5,000 adolescents benefiting from interventions, including a carefully structured Safe Spaces for Adolescents programme to enhance their knowledge of their sexuality and human rights.
Among the key achievements were the skills training for 450 adolescent girls in making reusable sanitary pads for their economic empowerment, and the re-enrollment of 10 out-of-school adolescent girls into their respective Junior High schools, some of whom have already written and passed their BECE exams and are now in the Senior High School.
Charity Batuure, the Acting Regional Director of the Department of Gender, and Principal Programme Officer, said a lot had even been achieved under the “Working with Men and Boys as Champions to end child marriage and harmful practices,” project, being implemented in seven districts and 33 communities in the Upper West Region, resulting in a reducing CM and HP.
“Thanks to efforts of the Men and Boys Clubs, we are now receiving more cases of abuse at the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit and referrals to the shelter for victims of abuse,” she said.
“Currently six community actions against CM and SGBV, have been reported through the efforts of the Community-Based Committees Teams (COMBACT) who act to address issues of SGBV and CM as well as other forms of violence that might be coming from within their communities.
“We also rescued six girls from CM, and re-enrolled them in school, out of two which two are in Lassie-Toulu SHS, one at the St. Francis Girls School and the rest in Basic schools within the Jirapa Municipality.
She also said some traditional leaders had agreed to help set some bye-laws to punish offenders.
Within the same community, the women’s groups after receiving training, have developed their own local Savings and Loans Associations and revamped existing ones where funds are rotated by members to enhance their businesses to support their families.
The UN resolution reinforces international consensus among its Member States, as well as UNFPA and UNICEF, that ending CM is a vital development and Human Rights issue, hence need to accelerate efforts to achieve the desired impact.
GNA