Evaluate economic impact of child marriages- calls SADC

Chairperson for the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary Women Caucus Dr Jessie Kabwila

Non-Governmental Organisations working on eradicating violence against children, especially child marriages, should study and calculate cost of the malpractice on the regional economic growth.

The call was made by Chairperson for the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary Women Caucus Dr Jessie Kabwila during a SADC campaign launch by the children’s charity, World Vision, called ‘It Takes a World to End Violence Against Children' in South Africa, on 30 August.

Just like a June 2017 World Bank report said, Kabwila agreed that violence against children and child marriages in particular, bring with them multiple development outcomes with implications on economic wellbeing.

Kabwila said that because moving forward with the campaign demands political will, there was need to approach states in the region with statistics that highlight the impact of the problem.

“Because child marriages contribute to poverty levels and dependency on the state, we need to approach our finance ministers and give them figures,” said Kabwila. “We need to show them what we lose and what we stand to gain by investing in the fight both in the short and long run”.

Speaking further to the 80 delegates that came from across the SADC region, Kabwila also said that the issue of child marriages touches on power dynamics in society. “We need everyone on board and we need to have something to present to every stakeholder needed,” she said, urging for efforts to harmonize laws that deal with children’s affairs.

Opening the conference, World Vision Southern Africa Region Interim Director, Jean Claude Mukadi said that his organisation will do everything it takes to reach out to the most vulnerable children trapped in various forms of violence.

“Curbing these ills is a matter of urgency”, said Mukadi. “And we have no luxury of waiting for tomorrow”.

Guest of Honour at the event, Queen Masenate Mohato Seeiso of Lesotho who is also World Vision’s Goodwill Ambassador said that the region cannot let go of this moment for change, urging all nationals who were part of the launch to go back and accelerate the momentum for change.

Malawi, party to the campaign, has opted to focus on eradicating child marriages in the next five years across all its impact areas. Integrated Programmes Director for World Vision Malawi, Charles Chimombo, said that Malawi will launch their in country campaign later in the year.

In Malawi, nearly 50 percent of girls marry before their 18^th birthday. While Malawi positively outlawed marriages of children under the age 18, Inkosi Kachindamoto of Dedza says more needs to be done to deal with the problem.

“I believe that this campaign will build on the grassroots efforts we have made for the past years and the laws we have made in the country to move forward”, said Inkosi Kachindamoto on the sidelines of the campaign launch.