Campaign RoadMap

On the fringes of the January 2015 AU Assembly of AU Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa– Hosted and championed by the President and First lady of the Republic of Chad;

The Commission of the African Union in collaboration with the Government of the Republic of Zambia and with support from various partners organized the First African Girls' Summit on Ending Child Marriage in Africa, in recognition of the efforts being made by African Governments and other stakeholders that have been actively working to end the harmful practice of child marriage by raising awareness of the adverse consequences for girls and running programs that provide girls with viable alternatives to marriage, as well as working towards more effective enforcement of existing laws that condemn child marriage;

The AUC Department of Social Affairs organized three capacity building workshops for Regional Economic Communities, Member States and CSOs. The workshops were held in September & October 2015 and March 2016, in Zambia (bringing together participants from East and Southern Africa), Nigeria (bringing together participants from West and Central Africa) and Egypt (bringing together participants from North Africa) respectively;

The main objective of the trainings is to enhance the capacity of the media to better investigate and report on child marriage in Africa with a focus on addressing the different facets of the issue and challenging all stakeholders towards ending the practice. The workshops will be regional, the first workshop will take place in November 2016 in Nairobi, Kenya, the second in Ghana (27 February – 01 March 2017) for the West and Central African Stream, and the third in Botswana (28 - 30 March 2017)  for the Southern African Stream with following workshops for North Africa, West & Central Africa and Southern Africa.  

The STC meeting took place in Algiers Algeria under the theme “Social Development, Labor, and Employment: Benefits of the Demographic Dividend for Inclusive Development” with the Objective to consider which investments would be required to address opportunities and challenges in reaping benefits of the demographic dividend with the inclusion of vulnerable groups and maximizing labor outcomes. The biennial report on the progress of the AU Campaign to End Child Marriage in Africa and the achievement made at the national level in ending child marriage within the framework of the campaign were noted. The STC emphasized the need to end child marriage with concrete recommendations from Member States and other stakeholders on actions to be taken to end child marriage. A declaration  was also developed stressing : ‘Continue to collaborate with the African Union on the campaign to end child marriage and to engage with various stakeholders at community, national, regional and international levels in the fight against this harmful practice and others negatively affecting children’

More than 100 girls will be taking part in an exciting new initiative entitled “African Girls Can Code” in Addis Ababa in August 2018. The purpose of this initiative is to enhance entrepreneurship and new business opportunities through use of new information technology and how African countries can draw on new digital – including mobile - technologies and skills transfer to allow business models and entrepreneurships to leapfrog. This initiative is a joint project between the African Union Commission, UN Women and International Telecommunications Union (ITU) aiming at promoting girls in STEM and ICT.

The AUC Campaign to End Child Marriage team conducted a post launch country visit to the State of Eritrea where they met with the ministries working to end child marriage specifically Ministry of Health and Ministry of Labour.

Eritrea has developed a committee consisting of these ministries including other ministries as part of a multi - sectorial approach in their strategy to end child marriage and female genital mutilation in the country. The team also went on a field visit to the town of Aditekelezan where they met with the community- religious and traditional leaders, parents, legal officers and also visited the Community Hospital. This field visit showcased the good practices that Eritrea has from national to community level working to end child marriage as well as the number of stake holders involved in fighting against harmful practices.

It was noted that Eritrea needs to document their good practices and share with other African countries to learn their programs and experiences in ending child marriage and FGM.

As child marriage is one of the main reasons for teen pregnancies in the developing world, the AU Campaign to End Child Marriage team was invited and given the opportunity to attend the 2nd International Conference on Maternal, New born and Child Health in Nairobi, Kenya and present in the parallel session entitled "Breaking the cycle by ending child marriage-key to ending teen pregnancy".

The Conference aimed to maintain momentum and focus towards ending preventable maternal and child deaths by 2030.

The session was a success in promoting the work of the AU Campaign to End Child Marriage, furthermore in forging possible new partnerships with relevant organizations to increase momentum of the campaign.

The Commission undertook a post launch visit to the republic of Mozambique on the 4 - 6 December to further enhance the efforts being made at country level to combat child marriage and continue to bring meaningful change. This visit further accelerated a Pan-African movement to end child marriage and to protect the girl child’s human rights across the continent.

The visit involved meetings with relevant Government Ministries focussing on addressing the practice of child marriage as well as national collaborating partners including religious, traditional and community leaders and various civil society organizations in the fight to end child marriage

Prior to the introductory meeting which was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in April 2017, the AU Campaign to End Child Marriage held the following CSO Ref Group in May 2018 where the main objectives of the meeting were to discuss how to better link the AU Campaign to community level organisations, establish a clear definition of the ways of work of the CSO RG, as well as link the work plan to the AU Campaign in order to achieve a strong synergy.

In light of the upcoming STC it was imperative that the African Union would make a decision to extend the Campaign to End Child Marriage for a five year period namely 2019 to 2023 hence the convening of the next CSO Ref group meeting held in March 2019. This meeting was to offer recommendations for the Strategic Directions for the Campaign to End Child Marriage, together with a proposed road map defining the next steps.

The dynamic role of the CSOs in the communities led the Commission’s Department of Social Affairs to assemble a CSO Reference Group in 2015 to work directly with the AU Campaign to End Child Marriage. The CSO RG is comprised of nine organizations across Africa, representing different stakeholders and reflecting regional balance.

The CSO Reference Group is to provide technical advice and leverage its knowledge and network base in furtherance of the African Campaign to End Child Marriage working through the office of the African Union Goodwill Ambassador. In addition, the AUC Campaign established a Technical Working Group of partners mostly based in Addis Ababa to be a platform for information sharing mostly with development and funding partners.

The Third Ordinary Session of the Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Social Development, Labour and Employment on "Poverty Eradication through strategic investments at National Regional levels on Social Development, Labour and Employment" took place on 1 - 5 April 2019 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Subsequently the Ministers adopted the decision for the AU Campaign to End Child Marriage to run for another 5 years (2019 – 2023).

MEDIA AWARD

The AU Campaign has been working with a number of stakeholders notably the media in reporting on child marriage issues, in 2018 the Commission in collaboration with an organization called Regional Inter Agency Task Team on Children & Aids-Eastern and Southern Africa (RIATT ESA) put out a call for applications for journalists to submit their work (in print media, blogs, social media, documentaries etc.) on ending child marriage and the most exemplary works were selected by the Commission -Department of Social Affairs and RIATT ESA. Subsequently, the Department of Social Affairs along with RIATT-ESA awarded two winners (in the amount of $2,000 for each winner) so as to encourage all stakeholders in the media to extensively report on the negative effects of child marriage on the girl child and its repercussion on the society and country at large.

Representatives of Member States of the African Union, Development Partners, UN Agencies, religious traditional and community leaders, Civil society organizations and NGOs involved in the field of youth all took part in the Pre - Summit event on “Advancing Girl’s and Women’s Empowerment” in Niamey, Niger.

“It is important for the Republic of Niger to put women and girls’ empowerment as a priority as part of the country’s development to accelerating gender equality and protecting the rights of girls and women” Specified the Governor of the Niamey Region, Mr. Mamoudou Moctar in his opening statement.

The Pre - Summit deliberated over a two day period from 1 - 2 July and had interactive discussions on how to improve the livelihoods of women and girls and to reflect on ways to ensure an effective and timely implementation of the legal frameworks, policies and strategic plans at national, regional and international levels in order to accelerate women and girls empowerment which fits with the Aspiration 6 of Agenda 2063.

The Pre - Summit adopted an ‘Outcome document’ with key actions towards an accelerated empowerment of women and girls.

UNWOMEN in partnership with the AUC and ITU held the 3^rd training camp on the African Girls Can Code Initiative. This time the camp was held concurrently in Addis Ababa, Adama and Awassa, Ethiopia. More than 400 girls took part in this initiative learning leadership skills and binary coding from international experts; once again each girl went home with a brand new laptop for their personal use.

The girls showcased their amazing projects at the final day of the coding camp. The projects included a wheel chair for the handicapped which has a sensory system installed that can detect objects ahead, a flood detector, an engaging student study application, a light bulb control system, several animations with moral stories amongst others. These projects are a testament of what the girls can do if provided with the opportunity and proper motivation. However, the overarching goal of AGCCI can be attained when they expand on the knowledge gained and in turn motivate others in their communities. Hence, a proper engagement mechanism with the trainees should be in place in order to ensure its effectiveness. In addition, although all projects were exceptional, the questions on how to link the girls with the most innovative project to international scientific and technological institutions should be taken into consideration