Mali

54% of girls in Mali marry before the age of 18 and 16% marry before the age of 15.

2% of boys in Mali marry before the age of 18.

In 2018, UN Women identified hotspots for child marriage in Kayes (70.9%), Sikasso (63.7%), and Mopti (64.5%). While nearly all the other regions have at least 60% prevalence of child marriage, it is mainly concentrated in the southwestern part of the country, which is rural and has high rates of poverty.

A 2017 World Bank/ICRW study estimated that ending child marriage in Mali could generate an additional USD 174.8 million in productivity gains.

Child marriage is driven by gender inequality and the belief that girls are somehow inferior to boys.

In Mali, child marriage is also driven by:

● Poverty: Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world. Available MICS data from 2015 revealed that 51% of women in its poorest households were married before the age of 18, compared to 36% in the richest households. Some parents marry their daughters at a young age to give them what they perceive will be a better life, reduce their perceived economic burden, and because they can demand a higher bride price. This practice continues to promote the belief that girls are the property of their husbands.

● Level of education: According to MICS data from 2015, 50% of women who only completed primary education were married before the age of 18, compared to 18% who had completed the second cycle of secondary education.

● Harmful practices: In some parts of Southern Mali, the practice of bride kidnapping is widespread. The abducted girl has no alternative but to marry the perpetrator, otherwise she will face stigmatisation because people will assume that she has been raped and has lost her highly valued virginity.

● Family honour: Islam, the most widespread religion in the country, sets strict religious taboos regarding female sexuality and purity in Mali. Many parents force girls into marriage as a means of avoiding the shame of sex and pregnancy out of wedlock.

● Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting (FGM/C): 89% of women and girls in Mali have undergone FGM. FGM/C is practiced by Muslim, Christian and Animist communities in Mali, and is sometimes considered a symbol of a girl’s readiness for marriage.

● Polygamy: Mali has the second-highest rate of polygamy in the world, and 23% of women aged 20-24 have at least one co-wife.

● COVID-19: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on some of the poorest households in Mali and has exacerbated the vulnerability of children. The pandemic exposed vulnerable families to loss of financial income, pushing them further into poverty and exclusion. School closures between March and September 2020 impacted 4 million children between the ages of 7-5 years, further exposing the vulnerability of young girls and making them more susceptible to abuse and child marriage.

Humanitarian settings can encompass a wide range of situations before, during and after natural disasters, conflicts and epidemics. They exacerbate poverty, insecurity, and lack of access to services such as education, factors which all drive child marriage. While gender inequality is a root cause of child marriage in both stable and crisis contexts, often in times of crisis, families see child marriage as a way to cope in greater economic hardship and to protect girls from increased violence.

Mali’s humanitarian situation continues to worsen. In recent years, Mali has been gripped by escalating violence that has spread across some West and Central African countries. Clashes between government forces and armed groups, particularly in the Ménaka and Gao regions, linked to ISIL and al-Qaeda, compromised the education and health systems, and forced more than 1.15 million people to flee their homes. Between August 2020 and May 2021, 2 coups d’état have added to the instability within the country. This has led to increased rates of school dropouts and violence against women and girls, including child marriage. As of 2023, there are 8.8 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, 76,000 people experiencing emergency levels of hunger and 200,000 children at risk of starvation. There are 375,000 internally displaced persons and 30,000 people who have had to flee their homes from Timbuktu and Toudeni.

● Armed conflict: A surge in conflict in Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal in 2012 destabilised Mali and had a huge impact on girls. Many were victims of rape and forced marriage by terrorists and armed groups, with some cases of sexual slavery reported by the UN. The ongoing instability and conflict continue to impact on the prevalence of child marriage in Mali.

Mali has committed to ending child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The government submitted a Voluntary National Review at the 2022 High Level Political Forum. In this review, the government noted that they are committed to combatting child marriage. The government launched the National Multisectoral Strategy for the Abandonment of Child Marriage (SNMME) (2020-2023). Through this strategy, 658 victims of child marriage have benefited from holistic care in 2022 and 841 victims in 2021. Through various social media campaigns and broadcasting, over 6 million people were reached on messages relating to child marriage, gender equality, sexual and reproductive health, maternal health and the importance of girls’ education. Additionally, 700 community leaders were engaged in dialogues surrounding gender-based violence, child marriage, sexual and reproductive health and gender equality.

In July 2021, at the Generation Equality Forum in Paris, Mali committed to a 5-year action journey to accelerate gender equality by 2026. The $40 million USD investment will include the development of legal and social change to end gender-based violence, child marriage, female genital mutilation in Togo, Benin, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

Mali co-sponsored the 2015 Human Rights Council resolution to end child, early and forced marriage, recognising that it is a violation of human rights, and the 2013, 2014, 2018 and 2020 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage. Mali also signed a joint resolution at the 2014 Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

Mali ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, which the Committee on the Rights of the Child has interpreted to recommend the establishment of a minimum age of marriage of 18, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1985, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

In 2017 the CEDAW Committee raised concerns about child marriages committed by extremist groups and members of the military in Mali, and the resulting impunity for perpetrators.

During its 2023 Universal Periodic Review, the Human Rights Council applauded Mali for their efforts in combatting child marriage through the National Strategy. It was also recognized that the government is making efforts to combat harmful practices, such as forceful feeding and gender inequality.

In its 2018 Universal Periodic Review, Mali supported recommendations to strengthen the implementation of legislation and policies aimed at ending harmful practices, in particular child, early and forced marriage, and align the minimum age of marriage for girls with international standards at 18 as opposed to 16.

In 1998 Mali ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, including Article 21 regarding the prohibition of child marriage.

In 2005 Mali ratified the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, including Article 6 which sets the minimum age for marriage as 18.

As a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in 2017 Mali adopted the Strategic Framework for Strengthening National Child Protection Systems under which protecting children from marriage is a priority. In June 2019, the ECOWAS Heads of State endorsed the ECOWAS Child Policy and Strategic Action Plan and the 2019-2030 Roadmap on prevention and response to child marriage.

In addition, in July 2019, the ECOWAS First Ladies signed “The Niamey Declaration: Call to End Child Marriage and to promote the Education and empowerment of Girls”, calling Member States to initiate legislative, institutional and budgetary reforms to implement the Roadmap.

Mali is one of the countries supported by the Spotlight Initiative (a global, multi-year partnership between the European Union and the United Nations). The Spotlight Initiative in Mali has focussed on efforts to end all forms of sexual and gender-based violence and harmful practices against women and girls. The total investment by the European Union between 2019-2020 has been $18 million USD. The funds have been distributed as follows:

Policy: Ensuring that legislation on gender-based violence, FGM/C and child marriage is drafted and adopted, including the adoption of the Child Protection Code.

Institution: Supporting government efforts to create a national programme to combat gender-based violence and promote gender-responsive budgeting.

Prevention: Challenging power relations between women and men that govern behaviours in households, communities, schools and social institutions by actively involving religious leaders through advocacy and intergenerational dialogue.

Data: Assessing local capacities and institutionalizing the collection and analysis of data on sexual and gender-based violence as well as developing digital tools to generate data in other sectors.

Women’s movement and civil society: Strengthen women’s rights organizations at local and national levels.

Mali is a partner country of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).

In partnership with Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), Association SORO, Walé, Save the Children and Oxfam, the Marriage: No Child’s Play (MNCP) 2016-2020 programme was implemented. This programme aimed to adopt a holistic girl-centred and community-driven approach to creating opportunities for adolescent girls.

In 2015, as part of the African Union Campaign to End Child Marriage in Africa, Mali launched its national campaign titled “Education for girls: a means to eliminating early child marriage”. The campaign is spearheaded by the First Lady and emphasises the need to keep girls in school to tackle child marriage. A National Committee to coordinate and monitor the actions and commitments of the African Union Campaign was formed in June 2017.

According to UN Women in Mali, a draft law against gender-based violence, which criminalises female genital mutilation/cutting and child marriage, was developed by civil society and scheduled to be brought before the National Assembly by the Ministry of Gender and Justice in 2018. However, as of the beginning of 2020, there are no updates on the passing of this law.

In January 2017 the First Lady Keïta Aminata Maïga hosted a meeting on adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health at the high-level France-Africa summit in Bamako.

Save the Children, in partnership with Oxfam Novib, under the “More Than Brides Alliance” is working to end child marriage through multiple strategies, including: empowering at-risk and already married adolescents with life-skills education, comprehensive sexuality education, and sexual and reproductive health and rights information; providing alternatives to early marriage through enhancing access to education, economic opportunities, and child protection systems; increasing sexual and reproductive health services; changing social norms; and influencing legal and policy frameworks.

Mali is also one of 11 countries working to create child marriage-free communities by 2020 as part of the Her Choice Alliance.

Under the Code of Persons and the Family 2011, the minimum legal age of marriage in Malawi is 16 years for girls and 18 years for boys. However, individuals older than 15 can marry with the authorisation of the Chief de Circonscription Administrative and parental consent.

In addition, most customary marriages are unregistered, especially those involving children as they lack birth registration documents.