UNICEF & UNFPA launch Acceleration Programme to end Child Marriage

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF)  jointly launched the Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage.

Flash Points

• The programme is a multi country cooperative and it will help protect the rights of millions of the world’s most vulnerable girls by involving families, communities, governments and young people
• As part of this global programme, both the agencies will work with governments of countries with a high prevalence of child marriage
• It will support those married girls in 12 countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East where child marriage rates are high
• It seeks to uphold the rights of adolescent girls, so that girls can reach their potential and countries can attain their social and economic development goals
• It will strive towards increasing economic support to families and strengthening and enforcing laws that establish 18 as the minimum age of marriage
• It will emphasize the importance of using robust data to inform policies related to adolescent girls
• It is being supported by Canada, the European Union, Italy, Netherlands, and the UK
• If current trends continue, the number of girls and women married as children will reach nearly 1 billion by 2030.
• Child marriage hurts economies and leads to intergenerational cycles of poverty.
• The programme supports the Target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals that vouches for elimination of child marriage by 2030
• The Target 5.3 mandates elimination of all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilations