A message from the Chair: Dr Anne T. Gallagher to step down as Chair of the Board of Trustees in October 2024

LONDON 28 May 2024 - After three years at the helm of Girls Not Brides, I am stepping down from my position as Chair, at a time when our organisation is stronger, and better funded than ever.

This is also a time when to celebrate some real and sustained progress in the global effort to end child, early and forced marriages across the world. Today, more individuals, more organisations, and more countries are coming together to declare their opposition to child marriage and to work together towards its elimination. National, regional, and global coalitions are helping to channel collective efforts. Better decisions are being made, based on a growing body of evidence to which Girls Not Brides is directly contributing.

And there can be no doubting the strength of the global commitment to end child marriage. There is now near-universal understanding that child marriage and other forms of early union compromise every aspect of a girls’ wellbeing and damage wider social and economic development. From human rights treaties to the Sustainable Development Goals, governments across our planet have loudly declared their opposition to child marriage and their intention to work towards its elimination.

While recognising real progress, it is abundantly evident that much remains to be done. UNICEF estimates that more than 640 million girls and women alive today were married in childhood. Absent a dramatic change in our current trajectory, we can expect an additional 150 million girls to be married by 2030 – the same year the international community has targeted as the point at which child marriage must end. This is not good enough.

An appreciation of the scale of the challenge should be used to orient direction and maintain momentum. At Girls Not Brides, we have refined our ways of working in response to our growing appreciation of what needs to be done, and how we can best contribute. Across the organisation: from programming to outreach to member relations, we are striving to improve in ways that will help us be better partners for change – and make a real difference to the lives of the girls and women we serve.

Our governance structures are a critical part of this response, and the Board of Girls Not Brides must be as open to change – to transformation – - as every other part of our organisation. We have done well to date, but we need an even stronger Board for a more challenging and even more ambitious future.

We will shortly be commencing recruitment for a new Chair and are seeking an inspirational change-maker with the energy and strategic vision to lead Girls Not Brides towards fulfilment of its mission to end child marriage. We will also be seeking three new trustees who will contribute their complementary skills and experience to help nurture a future-focused organisation that is truly responsive to the women and girls it was established to serve.

It has been a great privilege to serve as the Chair of Girls Not Brides. I warmly encourage those who are in a position to contribute to our vision of a world without child marriage to think about applying to join our Board. The task ahead is a formidable one. But helping to end child marriage is perhaps the greatest contribution any of us can make to the future wellbeing of millions of girls.

Anne Therese Gallagher AO

Chair of the Board

I have greatly enjoyed working with Anne over the past three years. As I reflect on our journey, I am deeply grateful for her extraordinary leadership and unwavering commitment to our mission. As Chair of the Board, Anne’s guidance has been instrumental in shaping our vision and driving our efforts forward. On behalf of our staff, members, and allies, I want to express our heartfelt gratitude for her dedication and service. We wish her all the best in her next adventure

Dr Faith Mwangi-Powell, CEO, Girls Not Brides