Civil society in Ghana launches Girls Not Brides partnership to end child marriage

Nine Girls Not Brides member organisations in Ghana have formed a national partnership to catalyse action to end child marriage in Ghana, where this harmful practice affects 21% of girls under 18. After several months of planning and preparation, the group officially became Girls Not Brides Ghana, launching on national radio on 10 December 2014, a day commemorating human rights around the world.

One of their key objectives will be to work with the government to develop a joint strategy to address child marriage.

The launch of Girls Not Brides Ghana comes at an opportune moment, following the commitments made by the Ghanaian government at the Girl Summit in July 2014. By 2017, the government committed to scale up awareness and prevention, to strengthen national institutions and laws, and to coordinate mechanisms to end child marriage.

Girls Not Brides Ghana is determined to seize this momentum and work with the Ghanaian government to develop a national action plan on child marriage and achieve nationwide change.

“We are going to work with the government of Ghana to make sure that there are policies in place [to end child marriage]. Once in place, they should be enforced and implemented to make sure that a girl of school-going age is in school and not forced into early marriage.”

Girls Not Brides Ghana is the fifth national partnership to be officially recognised as a Girls Not Brides national partnership, following the launch of similar groups in Mozambique, Nepal, the UK and the USA. National partnerships to end child marriage are active in a growing number of countries where many Girls Not Brides members are working hand-in-hand with governments, UN agencies and civil society on collective national strategies.

The founding members of Girls Not Brides Ghana are:


Other civil society organisations working to address child marriage in Ghana are welcome to apply for membership of Girls Not Brides Ghana by expressing their interest to Peter Ndonwie at paorp.vwc@gmail.com.

• Care Development Initiative
• Centre For Initiative Against Human Trafficking
• Ghana Association for Women's  Welfare
• Glims foundation
• Pan- African Organisation for Research and Protection of Violence on Women and Children
• Safe Child Ghana
• Simili-Aid
• Wuni Zaligu Development Association- WUZDA
• Youth Harvest Fondation

For further information about any of Girls Not Brides’ existing and emerging national partnerships, please send an email to info@GirlsNotBrides.org.

Further information about child marriage in Ghana: https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/child-marriage/ghana/