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January 2023
Dear friend,
In this first edition of "Voices" for 2023, we celebrate our top successes from the last year: launching a National Partnership in Guatemala, a flagship project with the Kuria community in Kenya and Tanzania, and a first-of-its-kind global research event. Looking forward, we share our vision for 2023, along with a snapshot of the ground breaking projects lined up for this year.
Scroll down to find news, latest research and upcoming events from across the global movement to end child marriage.
Collective successes and exciting plans for 2023.
Faith Mwangi-Powell, CEO, Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage
PHOTO: La Mesa de la Nina, the National Partnership to Address Child Marriage in Guatemala signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Girls Not Brides secretariat.
CELEBRATING OUR SUCCESSES FROM 2022
What a year we’ve had! Our Partnership has grown from strength to strength and our collective action drove real progress to improve the lives of girls around the world. Here are three of my highlights:
1. Launch of the first ever National Partnership in Latin America and the Caribbean
Launched with the Mesa a Favor de las Niñas y Adolescentes, this is a fantastic milestone in a country where 30% of girls marry or enter a union before the age of 18. The National Partnership will build on community-based experiences to advocate collectively at the national level, working to ensure all girls and adolescents can make choices about their lives and bodies.
2. Strengthening youth movement to end child marriage and female genital mutilation/cutting in Kenya and Tanzania
A new generation of young ambassadors set out to create change in the cross-border Kuria community. In a community where 80% of girls are at risk of child marriage, Girls Not Brides’ National Partnership in Kenya and the Tanzania Ending Child Marriage Network trained 133 young people to take collective, community-based action, building trust and partnering with diverse stakeholders to transform social norms. The project was made possible with the support of players of People’s Postcode Lottery.
3. First global research convening to strengthen coordination and evidence-based action to end child marriage
The Child Marriage Research to Action Network (the CRANK) held its first global research convening in December, bringing together researchers, practitioners, advocates and funders from around the world to share the latest evidence on child marriage. Scroll down for resources and insights from the three-day event.
LOOKING AHEAD TO 2023
We have many exciting plans in the works for 2023, which broadly fit into three areas:
1. Strengthening collective action at the national and sub-national level
We’ll continue to support and directly invest in Girls Not Brides member organisations, National Partnerships and coalitions to take collective action and drive change in their countries.
2. Keeping child marriage on the agenda and pushing for action with and for girls
As the world faces multiple intersecting crises, we’ll work across sectors and at every level to make sure child marriage stays firmly on changemakers’ agendas. We’ll be focusing on girls’ education, humanitarian and crisis settings, and sexual and reproductive health and rights.
3. Facilitating learning and driving evidence-based collective action
Learning from each other and developing a solid evidence base on child marriage are essential tools in our work to end the practice. That’s why we’ll also be building an interactive online knowledge and learning hub to facilitate sharing ideas and evidence across the movement. Look out for news of its launch in the coming months.
Ending child marriage is only possible through collective action. Read my blog to find out more about our plans for 2023 and how you can get involved.
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
“We don’t think for girls, we create space and allow them to share their reality. This goes hand in hand in the sense that every member organisation of La Mesa takes actions at the community level, where girls are the protagonists of their own changes and actions.”
Jocelyn Velásquez Morales, La Mesa de la Nina, the National Partnership to Address Child Marriage in Guatemala
LATEST LEARNING AND EVIDENCE ON CHILD MARRIAGE
The CRANK global research convening resources
Spread over three days, the global convening took a fresh lens to the latest evidence, working in partnership and the child marriage research funding landscape. Resources from all the sessions – recordings, presentations and key takeaways – are now available on the CRANK global research convening web pages. Access resources.
The CRANK online research tracker
Use this online tracker to explore and identify the latest child marriage research, using the inbuilt filter to search across themes and geographies, and get a better picture of what research is happening where. Explore the tracker.
CHILD MARRIAGE IN THE MEDIA
Join Mabel van Oranje, Mary Robinson and Womba-Wuta Wanki as they speak with Giles Edwards at the BBC about building the movement to end child marriage from the ground up – taking collective action, getting the issue on the international agenda, securing funding and engaging with diverse stakeholders at every level. Listen to the broadcast.
UPCOMING EVENTS
We will be picking up our learning series in February – watch this space for more details and registration links. In the meantime, all recordings, presentations and key takeaways from the 2022 series are available on our website. We covered cash transfers, the latest trends and evidence, supporting married girls, ethical communications and gender-transformative collective action. Access our resources.
OPPORTUNITIES
Consultancy to Conduct a Project Design and Development Workshop in Uganda
Join the Girls Not Bride's team as a consultant designing a clear vision of what Girls Not Brides Uganda wish to accomplish in the short and long term (5 years) and the road map to get there.
Application Deadline: 20 January 2023 5:00pm EAT
Apply now.
