Advocacy

Opportunities, information and guidance on how to engage in sub-national, national, regional and global advocacy to end child marriage.

Photo: Girls Not Brides/Graham Crouch

At Girls Not Brides we want to see local and national governments, regional bodies, and global institutions direct money and resources towards ending child marriage. We advocate for child marriage laws, policies and programmes that empower girls and their communities. We want them to be well-financed, comprehensive, and multi-sectoral.

We are global and regional advocates. We work with key partners and member organisations on global and regional advocacy initiatives and campaigns to engage decision-makers and keep child marriage on the political agenda. We support others to integrate approaches to end child marriage through their own work. Child marriage is an issue that must be addressed across the humanitarian, development and human rights sectors.

We are national advocates. We partner with our member organisations to advocate for effective responses to child marriage at a national level. We demand accountability from decision-makers. We share lessons learned, evidence and data about what works to end child marriage. Together with our membership, we hold governments to account for implementing their national child marriage strategies and programmes.

Global advocacy opportunities and campaigns

When we put the causes, implications and solutions to child marriage in the spotlight, we can boost political support for global decision-makers to address the issue. Girls Not Brides uses key moments in the global advocacy calendar to advance global efforts to end child marriage. We support the development of global standards and policies, and we drive resources and political will to efforts at the national and local level.

  • We work with platforms such as the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the global intergovernmental body dedicated to the promotion of gender equality, to spotlight the work of civil society to end child marriage in their countries and communities. We engage key decision-makers from UN Member States and bodies to address the issue during the annual two-week session in March.
  • We advocate for the UN and Human Rights Council Child, Early and Forced Marriage Resolutions to contain strong and relevant language on child marriage, and urge governments to co-sponsor resolutions and show their support.
  • Goal 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - a road map to ending poverty and achieving prosperity for all by 2030 - specifically outlines UN Member States' commitment to ending child marriage within this time frame. The Girls Not Brides Partnership and movement to end child marriage holds states accountable for their action. Each year, we mobilise and support our member organisations to engage in the annual SDG process and hold their own government to account.

Budget advocacy

Budget advocacy is a strategic approach to influence governments’ public budgets, to ensure they walk the talk on action for girls.

Government funding allocations are a mirror of political will. The decisions governments make about funding policies, programmes and services for girls can have a direct impact on a girl’s life: her health, education, her safety and protection from violence.

This is why we want to see these interventions for girls planned for, costed and funded across sectors, in government budgets, and to see those funds spent effectively at all levels for girls – which is where our work in budget advocacy comes in!

Highlights

COVID-19 and Child Marriage

Global estimates reveal that restrictions and lockdowns enforced during the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to approximately 13 million more child marriages by 2030. Visit our COVID-19 information hub to find out more about what it means for girls.

Sustainable Development Goals

All governments have committed to achieving the United Nations SDGs by 2030. However, global rates of child marriage are currently not on track, and unless significant action is taken now, 650 million more girls will be married by 2030. Use recommendations in our child marriage and SDG brief to strengthen your advocacy.

Youth activism

Resources, tools and information for young activists, Girls Not Brides member organisations, civil society actors and donors to support and promote the meaningful inclusion of youth in the collective efforts of the Partnership to end child marriage.

Advocacy resources

Toolkit

Leveraging United Nations human rights mechanisms to end child marriage: A step-by-step toolkit for civil society organisations

Toolkit for engaging with four key human rights mechanisms to end child marriage. This toolkit includes explanations for each, how they link with child marriage, and extra resources, tips and…

Fact sheet and brief

Ending child, early and forced marriage is crucial to gender equality

This advocacy brief explores and documents how gender equality issues, identified during the Beijing +25 process, link with child, early and forced marriage.

Girls Not Brides materials, Fact sheet and brief

Girls Not Brides Beijing+25 Advocacy Brief

Beijing+25 offers important opportunities to engage the global community on the issue of child marriage.

Girls Not Brides materials, Toolkit

The role of parliamentarians in ending child marriage

This toolkit provides an overview of what child marriage is, and existing international legal instruments that prohibit the practice

Our tools

An overview image of the world map from Girls Not Brides Atlas tool.

Child marriage atlas

Use our atlas to find key information about child marriage in your country, to use in your advocacy.

Link to this tool
A village chief at a community dialogue on FGM/C, organised by the Coalition on Violence Against Women – COVAW – in Kenya

Each year, 12 million girls are married before the age of 18, and 4.1 million girls are subjected to FGM/C

Current rates of progress to end child marriage by 2030 must be 12 times faster than current efforts, and 13 times faster to end FGM/C by 2030. Call on leaders of the Generation Equality Action Coalition on Gender Based Violence to take action!

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