WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO END CHILD MARRIAGE IN AFRICA?

WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO END CHILD MARRIAGE IN AFRICA?

About the author:

Sofonie Dala  is an oil and gas engineer, media executive, global peace ambassador, freelance translator, investigative journalist, independent scholar and researcher. 

1. ENDING CHILD MARRIAGE

The case of child marriage is one of the worst public health human rights, legal, spiritual, gender, and ethical challenges of the current era. It is true that there multiple national and global policies. laws, conventions, programmes, policies,projects, and institutions which are sometimes well funded, but their effectiveness is seriously wanting from time to time.

 This is also the case of the harvest is plenty but the laborers are few. It must begin with individuals who are involved but the starting point is to establish or identify all the social, economic, environmental, political and legal factors that contribute to it in order to end or stop. It calls for top level political will and commitment by each family, community, institution, country, religion, or region.As you can see, child marriage can be ended in one day if all the required political, social, legal, economic, and environmental resources are fully deployed to eradicate it. 

This scourge is promoted by some of the most unlikely suspects like parents or guardians, religious institutions or officials, school heads or directors, relatives or peers, judges or traditional or cultural leaders, women violators or promoters of gender based sexual violence, among others.

2. THE ANGOLAN CONTEXT

Angola provides many experience of poor leadership, in private and public sectors of the economy, which leads to a general perception of a leadership crisis. Moreover, Angola presents very high levels of poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, corruption, poor service deliver, crimes and all the diseases than can be found in the world. Angolan governmental leadership is generally portrayed negatively as authoritarian, bureaucratic, conservative and ineffective.

On the issues of education, Angola is a developing country with a large population of women. It had a civil war that lasted for a quarter century of war which left the nation’s infrastructure in ruins, and the education system was no exception. In schools, the attrition rates are higher for girl than boys. Girls drop out of school due to early pregnancies, forced marriages and poverty among others. Angolan girls and women who are illiterate often live in exceptionally deprived conditions. Some try to earn a living and a measure of independence by resorting to prostitution. This explains the high number of young women who are affected by, and infected with, HIV/AIDS. In addition, many young people who have no education also become involved in crime as a means of making a livelihood. Many parents, especially those from the lower social strata, when confronted with having to make a choice, would rather send their sons to school than their daughters. Their reluctance to educated girls stems from the belief that girls get married and the resources invested on them become a waste of money as they will enrich another family. In some cases, this is often coupled with retrogressive cultural practices such as forced marriages where young, under aged girls are given in marriage to men who are often much older than them.

3. COMBATING CHILD MARRIAGE IN ANGOLA

It is well documented that child marriage is a violation of international human rights law. Therefore, Angola has dedicated to prevent child, early and forced marriage by the end of 2030. The reasons for child marriage are numerous including the issues of gender inequality, pressure from parents and relatives, poverty and lack of alternatives, limited access to quality education and families’ prioritization of boys’ rather than girls’ education–in part because of limited job opportunities–contribute to perpetuate the practice. Child marriage can happen to both boys and girls, in every corner of Angola, the practice mostly affects girls. In order to end child marriage Angola first will have to empower teenagers, especially girls with information, skills and support networks. This means by keeping them in school, children would have a better chance for safety and security, to health and education, and to make their own life choices and verdicts. Furthermore, Angola also will have to afford economic assistance and incentives to girls and their relatives; educate and rally parents and community members; enhance teenagers’ access to a high-quality education; and of course encourage supportive laws and policies. Moreover, in order for the next generation of development programs to make ending child marriage a priority, policymakers should pay attention to these strategies at the same time continuing to test innovative approaches and evaluation techniques.