Regional Consultative Convening on Collective Influencing to Address Child Marriage

From 23 to 25 September 2025, over 30 representatives of African Union, civil society organisations, youth leaders, United Nations Agencies, development partners gathered in Nairobi, Kenya, for the Regional Consultative Convening on Collective Influencing to Address Child Marriage.

This event took place at a pivotal moment in Africa’s efforts to end child marriage and other harmful practices. Participants reviewed progress made over the past decade, reflected on persistent challenges, including conflict, climate change, economic crises and inequality, and reaffirmed their commitment to advancing the rights of girls in Africa.

Key outcomes of the Convening:

Following the conclusion of the Convening the stakeholders, key outcomes were identified as follows:

1. Participants co-created the foundation of a strategic roadmap to accelerate the elimination of child marriage, grounded in accountability, inclusivity, girls, survivor centered and youth leadership.
2. The convening reaffirmed the commitment of the African Union (AU), SADC Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF), civil society, youth leaders, and development partners, to co-create efficiently and collaborate effectively towards a coordinated approach to ending child marriages.  Young people, as the vanguard of Africa's future, issued a firm demand, emphasising that their inclusion in decision-making processes must be substantive, not tokenistic. They declared their readiness to co-create the regional development agenda and called on all stakeholders to formally  center youth perspectives into the strategic planning and core objectives of this movement.
3. The Convening resolved to develop a unified monitoring and accountability framework. This includes a common research and evidence agenda, as well as clear advocacy indicators, to effectively measure regional progress on ending child marriage and ensure the accountability of all stakeholders.
4. Commitments: The Convening committed to sustained advocacy at community, national, and regional levels, towards the formulation, reform and implementation of robust laws and policies as well as deliberate and sustainable financing   to ending child marriages.

Key Priorities and Themes

Accountability and Implementation

• Progress has been made through AU and regional frameworks such as the AU Campaign to End Child Marriage, the Maputo Protocol, and the SADC Model Law.
• We must move from policy adoption to full implementation and enforcement, with clear accountability mechanisms.

Financing

• National strategies remain underfunded. We call for increased domestic financing, including budget lines for ending child marriage.
• Donors and partners must provide flexible, long-term funding that prioritises grassroots organisations, youth-led groups, and survivor-led initiatives.

Youth Leadership

• Young people are not just participants but co-creators of strategies.
• We commit to institutionalising youth leadership in advocacy, including exploring formal roles such as youth envoys within regional processes.

Crisis Contexts (Climate, Conflict, Displacement)

• Crises are accelerating child marriage across the continent.
• We call for crisis-responsive interventions: education, safe spaces, livelihood pathways, and psychosocial support for girls in fragile and displaced settings.
• Cross-border cooperation is needed to tackle child marriage linked to displacement and trafficking.

Survivor Leadership

• Survivors of child marriage must be engaged as leaders and experts, shaping programmes, advocacy, and accountability efforts.

Social Norms and Community Engagement

• Families, traditional, and religious leaders remain catalysts for shifting harmful norms.
• Norms-change work must go together with legal reforms and services for girls.

Education and Economic Empowerment 

• Prioritize secondary education completion and integrate economic empowerment as core strategies to reduce child marriage, while expanding second-chance opportunities and focusing on marginalized groups such as rural girls, ethnic minorities, and girls with disabilities.

Health, SRHR, and Mental Health 

• Strengthen access to comprehensive SRHR services, expand mental health support for survivors and their children, and address intersections with FGM, disability, and HIV through tailored interventions.

Evidence and Data

• Reliable, disaggregated, and accessible data are essential.
• Research gaps must be addressed, particularly on married adolescents, parenting adolescents, adolescent survivors of Child marriage, children with disabilities, and the climate–conflict–marriage nexus.

Key Commitments

We commit to:

• Co-create a continental advocacy pathway (2026–2030) that is urgent, inclusive, and aligned with AU and global frameworks.
• Strengthen partnerships between AU, governments, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), civil society, and youth and survivor movements to improve accountability and implementation on the elimination of child marriage
• Secure and track financing for ending child marriage, ensuring strategies are costed, budgeted, and reported transparently.
• Institutionalise youth leadership, ensuring young people shape and monitor strategies at all levels.
• Address child marriage in crises by integrating it into humanitarian, climate, and displacement responses.
• Center survivors and community voices as equal partners in design, implementation, and accountability.
• Invest in evidence and learning to ensure advocacy and programming are grounded in data and lived realities, with equitable investment across geographies, population groups, and under-covered thematic areas.
• Translate commitments into tangible change, ensuring girls across Africa live free from child marriage, with full rights, dignity, and opportunity.
• Strengthen CSO reporting on ending child marriage and other harmful practices to the African Union using the African Union accountability framework on the elimination of Harmful Practices in Africa.

Signatories

Africa Union

Africa Union CIEFFA

African Child Policy Forum

Care International

Equality Now

Gender Is My Agenda Campaign

Girls First Fund

Girls Not Brides

Pan African Alliance on Ending Child Marriage

Plan International

Rozaria Memorial Trust

SADC Parliamentary Forum

Samburu Girls Foundation

Sonke Gender Justice

Strategic Initiative of the Horn of Africa

UNICEF

UNICEF UNFPA Global Program

Youth Anti-Female Genital Mutilation Network in Kenya