Gender-transformative collective action to end child marriage and advance girls' rights: The experience of the Coalition of Civil Society to End Child Marriage in Nigeria
Report outlining the key moments and collective priorities of the Nigeria Coalition's gender-transformative journey so far. It includes a review of the evidence and data, the Coalition's gender-transformative ranking and road map of priorities for collective action to advance girls' rights.
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 the experience of the national-level Coalition of Civil Society to End Child Marriage in Nigeria. They invested in a series of steps – as outlined in the Girls Not Brides 7-step guide – 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
The gender-transformative journey undertaken by the Coalition in Nigeria was the beginning of an ongoing process of critical reflection and planning for collective action to address child marriage and gender inequality. By following – and adapting – the seven steps of the journey, they deepened their individual and collective understanding and skills in gender-transformative approaches, and how they can be applied to their context.
They then used this shared knowledge to reflect on their collective approaches, structures, policies and activities, and to plan together. Through it, they have moved their collective work along the Gender Integration Continuum, towards transformative actions – from collective advocacy for safe spaces in schools, to capacity enhancement with adolescent girls, and forging new partnerships with boys and men – that address the root causes of gender inequality.
This report outlines the key moments and collective priorities from the 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 advance girls’ rights. We hope it inspires organisations working collectively towards gender equality in contexts like Nigeria 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 country report was made possible through the hard work, support and active participation of members of the Girls Not Brides-supported National Coalition on Ending Child Marriage in Nigeria, during the GTA Intensive Week. Particular thanks go to Child and Youth Protection Foundation (CYPF), the CSO Lead for this collaboration, for their support in coordinating other members of the National Coalition both in person and online.
We acknowledge and appreciate the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, specifically the Deputy Director for Girl Child Education, Mr Musa Aliyu and his team. Likewise, the Acting Director, Violence Against Persons Prohibition, of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Women, and her team, who provided valuable context on the relationship between child marriage and child trafficking.
We also appreciate the UNICEF West and Central Africa Regional Team for their support, funding and technical assistance for this collaboration, and the UNICEF Country Office for the data, contextualising perspectives, and technical support.
Thanks also to Dorinda Odonghanro, Peace Adebola Okeshola and Zainab Yahaya Tanko, the Gender Advocates who brought in perspectives from their different professions and networks, and supported the Facilitation Team to ensure an engaging GTA Intensive Week.
Thanks to Collective Impact for their technical guidance during the GTA Intensive Week and capacity enhancement for member organisations.