Last week, Sierra Leone’s parliament enacted landmark legislation to ban child marriage. The Prohibition of Child Marriage Bill 2024, which makes marriage for anyone under 18 a criminal offense, seeks to protect girls from a harmful practice that has long violated their rights and hindered their development.
Child marriage is a serious problem in Sierra Leone, where 30 percent of girls and 4 percent of boys are married before age 18, with even higher rates in rural areas. Around 800,000 girls are currently married in Sierra Leone, half before turning 15. Child marriages fuel the high adolescent pregnancy rate in Sierra Leone where, tragically, pregnancy complications are the leading cause of death for girls aged 15-19.
The new law prohibits all forms of child marriage and cohabitation with a child, including aiding and abetting, protects the best interests of children, and ensures affected girls have access to counseling and safeguarding. The law amends existing legislation, including the Child Rights and Registration of Customary Marriage Acts, to harmonize the legal framework on marriage and break the cycle of early marriage and its devastating consequences.
The law also builds on Sierra Leone’s efforts to protect young girls from marriage and tackle barriers to girls’ education. A new education law, adopted in 2023, guarantees children 13 years of free education, including one year of preprimary education as well as secondary education. The First Lady’s “Hands Off Our Girls” campaign has been instrumental in advocating against child marriage. The legislation is a milestone in Sierra Leone’s journey towards gender equality and child protection. It also sets a pathway forward for other African nations, such as Tanzania and Zambia, to revoke laws that permit child marriage, and ensure girls can complete primary and secondary education.
Now, Sierra Leone’s government should raise awareness, particularly in rural areas, about the new law and the harmful effects of child marriage. The government should also address other prevalent harmful practices linked to child marriage, such as female genital mutilation. It should collaborate with local communities, nongovernmental groups, and international organizations to publicly campaign about the harms associated with child marriage, while also providing support services for married children and children at risk of child marriage.
The government will also need to continue focusing on keeping girls in school, while it develops sustainable economic opportunities and social programs that empower girls and their families.
The girls at greatest risk of child marriage are often those hardest to reach. They come from poor families, marginalized groups or rural areas. They are also more likely to be out of school than their unmarried peers, robbed of the opportunity to thrive and fulfill their potential. Child marriage can lead to further isolation from family, friends and communities, and threaten girls’ livelihood and health.
In 2016, UNICEF, together with UNFPA, launched a global programme to tackle child marriage in 12 of the most high-prevalence or high-burden countries: Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia.
Global momentum towards ending child marriage has never been stronger, with several resolutions by the United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Council urging countries to increase investments in eliminating the practice. The UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage promotes the rights of adolescent girls to avert marriage and pregnancy, and enables them to achieve their aspirations through education and alternative pathways. The Global Programme supports households in demonstrating positive attitudes, empowers girls to direct their own futures, and strengthens the services that allow them to do so, including sexual and reproductive health and social protection programmes. It also addresses the underlying conditions that sustain child marriage, advocating for laws and policies that protect girls’ rights while highlighting the importance of using robust data to inform such policies.
The Global Programme is generously funded by the Governments of Belgium, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, the European Union through the Spotlight Initiative, and Zonta International.
Some notable results from the programme in 2022 show: In Nepal, 57,000 girls participated in life skills education, with 64 percent of the girls aged 15-19 years old reporting to have increased self-efficacy and that they can negotiate the delay of marriage and speak up without fear after participating in the programme. In Sierra Leone, over 60,000 community members participated in dialogues to promote gender equality, including specific sessions engaging men and boys on harmful masculinities, and sessions with traditional and religious leaders for consensus-building around ending child marriage. In a study on social norms in the country, 96 percent of the respondents agree that child marriage should be discontinued and nine out of ten say that they now wish to live in a community where girls do not have to marry before turning 18 years old. In Ethiopia, over 1,300 local women development groups have been supported to drive change and challenge harmful gender norms in their communities. In Zambia, 1,244 community welfare assistant committees were established with the support of the programme, training committee members on case management that reached over 13,000 adolescents with child protection, health, education and other social services through referrals and follow-ups.
“Through the life skills training, as well as the group activities with other girls, I feel I have transformed into a new person. I realized my self-worth and have better self-esteem, and I now feel that I am a person that can achieve anything in life.” said Fatma, 17, internally displaced from Ibb, Yemen.
The Global Programme achieves results for girls by aligning key players in education, child protection, social protection, social and behavior change, gender, health and other sectors. The Programme builds the capacities of Governments and non-government organizations while engaging with communities and partners for more harmonized action and accountability.
Our Ending Child Marriage project is working with communities to turn that around – accelerating social behavior change in what is currently a hopeful, progress-oriented time in Sierra Leone. A law criminalizing marriage before the age of 18 was enacted in 2018. Education is now free for all, and the nation’s education budget is 22% of national income. Passionate and competent national-level leaders like the current Ministers of Education and Gender & Children’s Affairs are determined to move the country forward, emphasizing the schooling and protection of the country’s youngest citizens.
Progress made possible through this project thus far: The Council of Paramount Chiefs recently announced the passing of a single unified bylaw against child marriage for all of Kailahun – a first for the district. This is a monumental win, which reinforces the criminality of child marriage, outlines the punishments for it and instructs community members on how to report it.
Meanwhile, we completed research inside the 15 communities to uncover the most significant local drivers of child marriage, created a Social and Behavior Change strategy based on the findings, and have begun implementing that strategy. With the support of Save the Children, the communities are now implementing tailored action plans to end adolescent pregnancy and child marriage among their people – through actions they design, that will be effective for them.
Source: UNICEF, UNFPA, Save the Children
