WVI Nepal concludes ‘It Takes Nepal to End Child Marriage campaign‘

KATHMANDU: World Vision International Nepal (WVI Nepal), in collaboration with the Government of Nepal and various CSOs actors, concluded its six-year campaign, ‘It Takes Nepal to End Child Marriage’, through an event in Kathmandu on Thursday.

The event attended by child rights experts and like-minded stakeholders included a session on national-level policy dialogue to discuss the roles and responsibilities of the government, civil society organisations, national and international organisations, to eliminate child marriage from Nepal by 2030.

The government of Nepal has a target to end child marriage as outlined in the National Strategy on Ending Child Marriage 2016, aligning with the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Over the past six years, the campaign has reached over 400,000 children and successfully collaborated with different levels of government in six provinces to formulate 44 policies related to ending child marriage, indicating positive commitment to addressing this issue is being observed.

The closing event of the campaign was chaired by Member of Parliament Arzu Rana Deuba with participation from various ministries including the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens, along with various national and international organisations working to end child marriage in Nepal. Findings from research conducted by World Vision were shared along with stories from children impacted by the campaign and a Policy Brief launched by Joining Forces, a network of child-focused agencies committed to ending child marriage.

Addressing the event, Minister for Women, Children and Senior Citizens Surendra Raj Acharya said, “Child Marriage is a criminal act and robs children of their rights. Grassroot level awareness is key to stopping child marriage in the communities, at the same time a common effort of all stakeholders is required to end child marriage from our community”.

Lawmaker Rana expressed her commitment to continue to work on the issue relating to children, specifically girls and women. She also added that social awareness is not enough to end child marriage as targeted by the Government of Nepal. Implementation of policies is also key to ending child marriage.

Child representative and member of National Child Advocate Council, Prekshya Adhikari, shared about the importance of child participation across decision making as well as implementation of programmes relating to children.

The campaign ‘It Takes Nepal to End Child Marriage’ started in Nepal in August 2017 through a formal launch by the then President Bidya Devi Bhandari to bring impact through the campaign with a specific focus on strengthening systems, changing behaviours of children, adolescents and their family and influencing effective implementation of policy. 

Roslyn H Gabriel, National Director of WVI Nepal highlighted the importance of efficient collaboration between government and non-government agencies to eliminate child marriage in Nepal by 2030. “The campaign brought together more than 65 partners at the federal, provincial and local levels to join hands in declaration of 11 Child Friendly Local Governments and has been able to directly prevent 561 Child marriages throughout WVI Nepal’s working areas. The campaign covered 46 municipalities in six provinces where 24 rural municipalities and municipalities formed ending child early and forced marriage strategy/plan/procedures, while 10 rural municipalities and municipalities have already endorsed and implemented the strategy in their respective municipalities. However, our effort should not end here, while there has been progress made, almost 1 in 3 children still marry before the age of 18 years in Nepal and the issue requires sustained focused attention. World Vision will continue its commitment and urges the government as well as all stakeholders to keep the momentum alive towards the efforts of ending child marriage.”

Dibya, a child club member and campaigner against child marriage, shared, “We’re working to stop child marriages in our village, and we are making parents aware of the issues caused by child marriage and the laws against it. However, many of the families that marry their daughters early in our community do so because of financial constraints – sons are sent to India to find work, and girls are married.” She is a child marriage survivor who is now actively engaged in stopping child marriage in her community with support from World Vision and its implementing organisations.

Though the campaign has come to an end, the issues surrounding child marriage and child rights will continue to be a priority of work for World Vision, it is said. World Vision will continue to improve the well-being of 0.8 million children, in particular the most vulnerable ones by 2025 through its work on education, health, nutrition and WASH, disaster risk reduction, child protection, and livelihood.