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Gender Minister Urges Stakeholders to Work With Govt in the Fight Against Early Marriages


By Pamela Inambao, ZANIS - Chinsali



Senior Chief Nkula and Gender Minister Elizabeth Phiri - Picture by Pamela Inambao



GENDER Minister Elizabeth Phiri has appealed to stakeholders to work with Government in order to reduce the increasing number of early marriages and teenage pregnancies in the country.

The Minister was speaking in Chinsali District recently during a meeting with women which was held at the Farmers Training Center (FTC) and focused on dangers and effects of early marriages.

Ms. Phiri said stakeholders play an important role in their communities hence the need for their involvement in issues affecting the nation.

She stated that the country has seen an increase in the cases of child marriages adding that Government will continue to engage various stakeholders who include traditional leaders.

The Minister charged that men and women should utilise the Girls Education Women Empowerment and Livelihoods (GEWEL) Project which is partly aimed at helping expand access to secondary school  education for adolescent girls from poor households through the Keep Girls in School (KGS) bursary. 

She said Government saw it important to implement the project as a way of ending child marriages.

Speaking at the same meeting, Director Gender Rights Protection Lynn Habanji stated that the prevalence rate for early marriages in the country is currently at 31.2 percent depicting a 10.8 percent drop from 42 percent at the inception of the campaign to end child marriage in 2013. 

Mrs Habanji stated that Strategy to End Child Marriages which was launched in 2016 has seen a reduction in the cases of early marriages.

“Although the number has reduced from 42 to 31 percent, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done especially in rural areas,” Mrs Habanji said.

She added that issues of Gender Based Violence affects everyone especially the women and girls hence the need to involve various stakeholders.

Meanwhile, Agness Nampokolo has called on other women in the district and the country at large not to allow their children into early marriages.

She said it is important to educate a girl child in order to improve their living standards than letting them get into early marriages.

And Senior Chief Nkula of the Bemba people of Chinsali district has pledged to continue to engage government and cooperating partners in improving the social welfare of the girl child in his chiefdom.

“I have already engaged my subjects and the community to sensitise residents in my chiefdom on issues of child marriages and teenage pregnancies,” Chief Nkula said.

The Traditional Leader added that the high levels of child marriage and teenage pregnancies are alarming not just in rural areas but the entire country.

“My subjects are currently on the ground to see to it that those that have been married off at a younger age are retrieved from the marriages and are given an opportunity to further their studies,” he said.

Chief Nkula further called on Government to continue to work with traditional leaders in various chiefdoms if they are to win the scourge.

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