Rebecca Mahlunge, Hivos - DFID Girl Summit 2014

"In terms of progress, I think we see a Malawi now that at national level everybody's tuned to this issue, everybody wants to work on this issue, we've got some real commitments from traditional leaders to work with statutory laws...." - Rebecca Mahlunge

Panel Discussion: Spotlight on Progress A3 - Faith Forward: the Role of Faith Communities and Leaders in Addressing FGM and CEFM

Context
This is one of the 14 "Spotlights on Progress" video-recorded sessions that took place at the Girl Summit 2014 in London on 22nd July. The sessions were organised to spark conversations and share best practice between practitioners from around the world, between grassroots activists and ministers, and across all the issues of female genital mutilation (FGM) and child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM). Girl Summit is a project of the Department for International Development (DFID), UK.

A featured panelist of this Spotlight session was Rebecca Mahlunge, Programme Manager at Hivos, who shared experiences and lessons learned from a multi-actor initiative to tackle child marriage in Malawi.

Profile of Speaker
Rebecca Mahlunge, Regional Programme Officer, Gender, Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights and HIV/AIDS for the Southern Africa region at Hivos. She has worked in Malawi for the last 9 months on the Child Marriage programme. She is a qualified nurse, with an MSc in Public Health and an MBA.

Project strategy and key points made in the presentation:

When the project started, a study by UNICEF had ranked Malawi as one of the top 10 child marriage hotspots globally. Nearly 50% of girls are married before the age of 15. In response, Hivos initiated a multi-actor coalition to tackle child marriage, seeking to create a common agenda for the reduction of child marriages and to coordinate strategies and actions at a local and national level.

Since 2011, Hivos has been working with 7 civil society organisations to address the issue of child marriage on the ground. Experience showed them that the primary leadership that Malawians responded to were faith and traditional leadership, so they were considered key to all community initiatives. However, after some time of community level work with civic society organisations and traditional and faith leaders, they found that even the current law at the time that prohibited child marriage before the age of 14 was not being upheld by communities and that many girls were still getting married at ages younger than 14. Just working at community level was not enough and was only having limited impact.

They realised that a two pronged approach was necessary and that they needed to bring the national leadership on board - including the highest level of faith and religious leaders - so that they could support local initiatives and ensure coordination between local and national actions. For this reason, in 2013, Hivos organised a National Symposium on Child Marriages which brought together government representatives, chiefs, members of parliament, non-governmental organisations, religious leaders, and journalists, with the aim of raising the awareness of stakeholders and decision makers on the status of child marriage in Malawi, and getting their support for existing civic society initiatives.

Hivos has, since then, supported numerous national initiatives by creating spaces and platforms, such as symposiums, to raise awareness about the negative effects of child marriages, and has worked to lobby parliamentarians. At the same time, they have continued with the support to community level activities, which have included radio initiatives and community dialogues.

The speaker ended off by saying that in terms of progress, one can see a Malawi now, where at national level, everybody is on board and willing to work on this issue, and that there are real commitments from traditional and religious leaders to work on statutory laws related to child marriage. (Note: A new marriage bill was subsequently signed into law in April 2015, which raises the minimum age for marriage from 14 to 18, effectively banning child marriages.

Key lessons from this presentation (as per the Session summary document): "Change works when it comes from the top and from the grassroots at the same time. Building coalitions with faith and community leaders at the grass roots is key to establishing a broad base of support for changes in cultural practices that harm women or lead to CEFM. However these solutions, particularly in the case of Malawi, are often unable to reach their full effect without progress at the national level, and political support for changes to the legislative framework that underpin the rights and wellbeing of women and girls."

Overview of the "Faith Forward: the Role of Faith Communities and Leaders in Addressing FGM and CEFM" Summit Session:
"This Spotlight discusses initiatives with faith and community leaders who support efforts to end FGM and child, early and forced marriage. Lessons are shared from inter-faith dialogue and from coalition building with wider non-faith groups to outline areas for future action including joint statements, campaigns and by connecting local and international faith communities. The discussion covers:

• building coalitions with faith and community leaders at the grass roots;
• working with faith and community leaders in challenging contexts;
• using traditional networks and new media to engage audiences;
• engaging a global community of faith leaders."

The speakers, in order of appearance, are:
Rebecca Mahlunge Programme Manager, Hivos
Shahin Ashraf Muslim Chaplain and National Network Coordinator for the Muslim Women’s Network UK
Reverend Dr Medad Birungi Zinomuhangi President and Founder, World Shine Ministries
Professor Gamal Serour Professor and Director of the International Islamic Center for Population Studies and Research at Al-Azhar University
Dr Ann-Marie Wilson Executive Director, 28 Too Many

The session was chaired by human rights journalist Saroja Coelho, formerly Environment Editor and Radio Presenter at Deutsche Welle.

Footage of this (available below) and other "Spotlight Sessions" are available on DFID’s YouTube channel.