For every girl: A brighter future
IN May 2017, UNICEF launched the “For Every Child, Results” report which gives a detailed account of tremendous advances made for children around the world, especially in the past 30 years. UNICEF, with its local presence in Zimbabwe, is bringing unequalled experience and expertise in saving and improving children’s lives. We are helping to drive results for girls from our vast network at a global scale.
In 2016, through the support of the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and UN Women, we launched a campaign against child marriage in collaboration with other organisations such as Roots, Apostolic Women Empowerment Trust and Family Support Trust, that was endorsed by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development.
The Government of Zimbabwe is showing its commitment towards empowering women and girls and protecting their human rights by being the first among other countries such as Namibia, Swaziland and Angola to launch the African Union Campaign on Ending Child Marriage.
UNICEF Results Report (May 2017) notes that there are 600 million adolescent girls in the world, most of them living in the developing world. Among these girls are Zimbabwean girls, who overflow with the potential to become entrepreneurs, scientists, visionary change makers, or leaders of their country.
But Zimbabwe has one of the highest levels of child marriages, ranking at number 41 globally. The recent Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey 2015 states that one in 20 girls aged 15 years and one in three girls aged 18 have started bearing their own children.
Key partners such as Plan International Zimbabwe, Childline and Child Protection Society are making efforts to empower our young girls to break the vicious cycle of poverty that often is the leading cause of child marriage.
In this process development partners are supporting Government determination in creating innovative mechanisms that protect girls in a context where poverty is so widespread. One of the key strategies is to deliberately invest in girl’s education which is mostly undervalued.
This also means adopting deliberate policies that promote the rights of girls. Even within this current constrained economic environment, safeguarding budgetary allocations in key sectors that are critical to a girl’s development is critical.
At the Global Innovation Centre, we are designing programmes that empower girls. One of these innovations is U-Report, a free social messaging tool that currently has over 1,3 million female users across 33 countries and over 18 908 female users in Zimbabwe.
The platform is a place for girls to voice their opinions, questions and concerns and to engage in conversations on issues that matter to them most.
The United Nations family through the Zimbabwe United Nations Development Framework is committed to supporting Government’s interventions in creating an enabling environment towards the security of women, girls and children. As development partners, we continue to advocate for supportive policies, legislation and dialogue about girl’s human rights and dignity.
We are not alone in this process. Padare -Men’s Forum on Gender - is also contributing towards strengthening the child protection system to track, account and safeguard girls from early marriage by mobilising men in their communities to address negative social norms and supporting decisive leadership and increased political will from traditional chiefs and national leaders.
They are calling for urgent inclusion of boys and men in the fight against child marriages, men must become advocates and agents of social change.
The Government of Zimbabwe is making commendable efforts in developing a strong legal and policy framework for the advancement of women’s rights. The Government is additionally making strides in towards implementing the National Action Plan Against Rape and Sexual Abuse.