Logos of UNFPA & UNICEF respectively
Story by: Ishmael Barfi
In efforts to end child marriage in Ghana, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is set to hold the Adolescent Girls Learning Forum (ADOLEF) and Delegates Conference on Ending Child Marriage.
The Adolescent Girls Learning Forum (ADOLEF) and Delegates Conference on Ending Child Marriage will be held on 29th November, 2022 at the Coconut Groove Hotel, Accra with the aim to bring girls together from all the GPECM regions in Ghana once a year.
As well as to also bring together development and implementing partners including government to learn and share best practices on combating child marriage, adolescent pregnancies and to create safe spaces for girls to strive.
In addition, the Legislators and Delegates Conference will be organised alongside the ADOLEF where there will be interaction between the participants and Members of Parliament especially MPs representing constituencies within the child marriage zones in Ghana.
This is to enable the MPs to understand and appreciate the realities of issues affecting girls and hence put measures and seek support for interventions to end them.
The learning forum was created by UNFPA Ghana as part of activities under the UNFPA/UNICEF Joint Programme with the objective to ensure effectiveness, hence mentorship and prep sessions to enable adolescent to strive to greater heights as well as to engage their MPs actively.
To push for the end of child marriage, the girls will be supported to present a petition on pertinent issues that affect them and to interact with the MPs in and out of the floor of Parliament.
Furthermore, to provide a platform that will harness network, learn and share ideas as well as document innovative strategies to address child marriage, teenage pregnancy and other harmful practices.
Also, to increase the capacity of adolescent girls to make informed decisions about their life and to showcase the importance of Safe Space for the girls and the country hence inform stakeholders of the project’s impact.
And also to renew commitment of participated Members of Parliament to end teenage pregnancies and child marriage in their constituencies
Child marriage is defined as ” any formal marriage or informal union between a child and an adult or another child”.
It is considered a violation of human rights and a harmful traditional practice affecting more girls than boys. While the prevalence of child in Ghana has declined over the past three decades, progress has not been even within regions.
The key drivers of child marriage are multiple and multi-faceted and are linked to gender inequality, poverty, social norms, cultural and traditional practices as well as teenage pregnancy.
At the heart of the theory of change of the Global Programme on Ending Child Marriage is an adolescent girl-centred approach that aims to empower the individual adolescent girl to make decisions about when and whom to marry, within a web of support that involves her family, the community, society and public structures, institutions, systems and services.
Source: www.thenewindependentonline.com
