World Vision: Together for a Senegal without child marriage

After several months of preparation, we are ready for the national launch to the public of the World Vision campaign ‘Together for a Senegal without child marriage’.

Having put in place a partnership between different World Vision International colleagues that was concluded in Addis-Ababa, the initiative getting underway in Dakar will be the first of its kind in a francophone country – the beginning of a concerted advocacy campaign to improve the well-being of 8 million children by 2021.

Child marriage constitutes a significant problem in Senegal where official sources quote the statistic of 33% of girls marrying before the age of 18.

In Senegal, 27% of uneducated girls have given birth before the age of 18, whereas only 7.4% of teenagers reaching secondary education fall pregnant.

World Vision Senegal will launch the campaign to the public on Monday 19 June 2017, tying in with the Senegalese government’s national campaign to clamp down on child marriage. The name of the campaign clearly recognises that the issue cannot be resolved by one individual, a group or an organisation. It requires the commitment of everybody. World Vision firmly believes that the faith communities have an essential role to play in this.

The five main demands of the position paper

1. Harmonise the legal and institutional framework for child protection, in conformity with international conventions ratified by the state of Senegal, specifically raising the marriageable age for girls to 18.
2. Increase government funding to the implementation of the National Strategy for the Protection of Childhood (SNPE)
3. Galvanise the nation for the elimination of child marriage and finalise the child marriage prevention plan component of the SNPE Working Plan 2016-2018.
4. Design and put into effect an action plan to intensify dialogue between the government, religious authorities and traditional leaders regarding the elimination of child marriages.
5. Implement by June 2018 a monitoring system fit for the purpose of meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially the sub-objectives 5.3 and 16.2 in order to eradicate child marriage in Senegal by 2030. 

“On the basis of our experience in humanitarian work with communities and other partners, we know just how much influence religious leaders can wield. They need to raise awareness in their communities, amongst members of their churches, brotherhoods and their religious families in general, regarding the forms that violence towards children takes. They must leave no believer in any doubt about the presence of this violence in villages, towns and communities,” declares Jean Frederic Manga, Head of Advocacy at World Vision Senegal. “As we speak there are kids falling victim to early marriage - every one of them stripped of their rights, dignity and God-given potential.” 

Certain legal provisions that discriminate against girls still persist, particularly the minimum age for marriage being fixed at 16 for girls and 18 for boys (Article 111 of the Family Code)

Child marriage in Senegal comes at an immeasurable cost, hampering economic development and undermining the social and economic capital of the country. Furthermore, the practice has severe consequences for the health of girl-mothers and new-borns; the risk of mother and baby mortality is very high for girls married before the age of 18. World Vision has concluded that these marriages are reaching epidemic proportions, and that not acting to oppose them is the same as approving of them.

“Our response to child marriage is motivated by our faith - the conviction that each child is created in the image of God. The systems and structures that perpetuate this vicious cycle of violence have deep ideological and spiritual roots that must be overcome by arguments drawing on our various religions,” declares Joseph Carvalho, National Head of the Faith and Development Unit at World Vision Senegal.

Together we will put an end to child marriage in Africa: governments, UNO, civil society, young people and communities.

World Vision encourages religious communities of all kinds to start taking the steps today to better understand the consequences of child marriage, and to rise up with us in order put an end to this form of violence against children. 

“It is not the case that people are unconcerned by this issue, it is just that they have perhaps forgotten that a country can be transformed by the small acts of millions of people,” says Dr Andrew Catford, Country Director for World Vision Senegal.

Over the course of the next five years, the campaign ‘Together for a Senegal without child marriage’ will seek to have a positive impact on the lives of millions of vulnerable boys and girls who are at risk of early marriage, thereby making an important contribution towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 5.3 and 16.2.