Who this report is for
This report is for any group of civil society organisations (CSO) working collectively on child marriage at the national or subnational level. African CSOs working to address child marriage are the primary audience, but other CSOs using a rights-based approach to advance gender justice and/or minority rights more broadly may also find it useful.
What this report is for
The need to accelerate progress on child marriage and the link between child marriage and gender equality make intentional gender-transformative collective action critical. This report shares highlights from Coligação para Eliminação dos Casamentos Prematuros” (CECAP, the Girls Not Brides National Partnership to End Child Marriage in Mozambique). This CSO collective invested in a series of steps to strengthen their gender-transformative skills, knowledge and leadership to systematically analyse and address the root causes of gender inequality at the individual and systems levels.
By sharing the experience of one CSO collective – what they did and the difference it has made to their collective work – we hope to inspire and encourage other groups of CSOs to begin similar intentional gender-transformative journeys to accelerate higher impact and more sustainable change in the attitudes, systems and structures that perpetuate and promote child marriage.
Gender-transformative approaches (GTAs)
GTA recognise and strengthen positive norms that support equality and aim to create an environment in which girls and women can can exercise their rights, and make and act on their decisions - that is, have agency. We call this an “enabling environment”.
This means promoting the relative position of girls, women and groups that have been marginalised, and transforming the underlying social structures, policies, systems and broadly-held social norms that perpetuate and legitimise gender inequalities.
GTAs are intentional about challenging the status quo, rebalancing power, and redistributing resources towards people who have been historically marginalised, excluded and discriminated against on the basis of their gender.
In summary
Through their GTA Intensive Week, as part of the 7-step guide on How civil society organisations can use gender-transformative collective action to address child marriage and premature unions, and advance girls’ rights, CECAP members:
- Became more informed about gender-transformative approaches.
- Gained clarity on gender-transformative concepts and phases, as charted on the Gender Integration Continuum.
- Mapped their progress on the core elements of a gender-transformative approach, discussing and ranking their work in each element.
- Identified existing challenges and opportunities for accelerated action across the socio-ecological framework.
- Reviewed potential actions to catalyse progress towards more gender transformative approaches.
- Prioritised clear, concrete and measurable strategic actions to create a roadmap for progress.
The gender-transformative journey undertaken by CECAP in Mozambique was the beginning of an ongoing process of critical reflection and planning for collective action to address child marriage and premature unions, and gender inequality.
This report outlines the key moments and collective priorities from this journey so far. It is intended to bring the 7-step guide to life with real examples of how civil society organisations can use gender-transformative approaches to address child marriage and premature unions, and advance girls’ rights.
We hope it inspires organisations working collectively towards gender equality in contexts like Mozambique to undertake a similar reflective and planning process.
Acknowledgements
This report complements a 7-step guide on How civil society organisations can use gender-transformative collective action to address child marriage and advance girls’ rights, produced by Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage.
The guide is an adaptation – by and for CSOs – of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)-United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Global Programme to End Child Marriage’s Gender-transformative accelerator tool. This Tool was produced by the UNFPA and UNICEF headquarters’ offices, in collaboration with Collective Impact. Its adaptation into the 7-step guide and activities was made possible thanks to support from UNICEF and funding from the EU/Spotlight Initiative.
This country report was made possible through the hard work, support and active participation of members of CECAP, during the GTA Intensive Week.