Recognizing the importance of lawmakers interacting with girls to understand the unique difficulties and challenges that they face, GPACE engaged girls in an informative debate, enabling them to use their voices.
Problems and Purpose
A debate was organized by the Global Partnership Against Child Exploitation (GPACE) in Malawi in order to address what nationals laws should look like to end child marriage. This initiative brought together the minister of gender, the deputy speaker of parliament, members of civil society, traditional leaders, activists, and, of course, the people who would benefit most from this legislation: adolescent girls. The consultation aimed to address the under-representation of girl's voices on the unique issues that affect them and empower them to speak up, resulting in an informative debate.[1]
Background History and Context
Malawi has the 9th highest rate of child marriage in the world. According to their constitution, the minimum age for marriage is 18, but marriages for younger girls are permitted if their parents give consent. Little is done to enforce the minimum age of marriage and it is not surprising that UNICEF found that 50% of girls in Malawi are married by 18 – nearly 10% of girls are married by 15.
At an international summit on family planning in London in June, the Vice President of Malawi committed to address the minimum age of marriage. But the problem is, when politicians amend important laws like these, they rarely consult the people whose lives are directly affected, which this initiative aims to rectify.[1]
When girls aren’t consulted, local community leaders fail to realize the effect that harmful traditional practices have. Previously, leaders who were approached to discuss child marriage incorrectly claimed that it was "stopped...a long time ago”. They often fail to realize the harmful impact the practice could have.
Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities
Kingsley Banda is the Project Officer of Global Partnership Against Child Exploitation in Malawi, the organizer of this debate. After a commitment from the Vice President of Malawi to address the minimum age for marriage by the end of the year, GPACE increased its efforts to help girls voice their concerns to national and community leaders.
Participant Recruitment and Selection
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Methods and Tools Used
What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation
Aiming to empower girls themselves as advocates for their rights and agents of change, the first thing done when GPACE goes into communities is to get the girls together, sit down with them and encourage them to chart their lives on a map, to draw their experiences, and create their own ‘river of life’.
Many of the girls they work with are illiterate so GPACE asks them to draw their experience. Then each girl presents her story to the group, and the group gives feedback: “you forgot this,” or “what about that difficult situation you were in?” Finally, the group chooses a story to relate to their community leaders, meaning they promote and advocate for their own rights.
Influence, Outcomes, and Effects
After the debate, GPACE developed a recommendation that laws should put education as the priority for young girls and raise the marriage age in line with the age of graduation. This would allow girls the opportunity to finish their education before marriage.
Now, when the girls visit leaders in the community to share these stories, they can no longer deny the practice takes place or that it has such an impact on the girls’ lives. Thus, such stories can be shared to influence community leaders to rethink practices that have been taking place within a community for generations.
Analysis and Lessons Learned
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See Also
Global Partnership Against Child Exploitation
GPACE Youth Participation and Democratic Education in Community Development Committees
References
[1] Banda, Kingsley. "Girls' Voices." Global Partnership Against Child Exploitation. [see attached Word Document]
External Links
Notes
This entry was originally submitted as an organization and was converted to a case to meet Participedia's definitional standards.