Ending child marriage and empowering adolescent girls and young women to realize their full and true potentials

THEORY OF CHANGE

IF ChildBride Solidarity (CBS):

Empowers girls and young women to know their rights and be agents of positive change in the communities,
Mobilizes and engages families and communities to change bad attitudes and biased traditions that fuel and perpetuate child marriage and gender-based violence,
Provides services that enable access to better education, health, trauma awareness, protection and legal services, and
Advocates for the development and implementation of women-friendly strong laws and policies to address child marriage, forced marriage and gender-based violence in South Sudan;

THEN rampant cases of gender inequality, abject poverty, bad cultural norms, lack of education and pervading insecurity that fuel and sustain bad practices of child marriage, early marriage, forced marriage and gender-based violence against adolescent girls and young women:

Would be mitigated and/or ended;

BECAUSE adolescent girls and young women who have been educated and empowered to fulfill their true and full potentials are:

Less likely to become victims of child marriage, forced marriage and gender-based violence, to dropped out of school, to be trapped in poverty and cycles of violence
More likely to influence their future by finishing their studies, becoming self-reliant socioeconomically and enlightened politically, and
More crucially able to decide if, when, and whom to marry and thus leading healthy, empowered and prosperous lives

THE ROOT CAUSES OF CHILD MARRIAGE

Child, early and forced marriages and gender-based violence are mostly fueled by patriarchal values and gender inequality that tend to advocate the belief that girls and women are inferior to boys and men. Among the pastoral communities of the Greater Jonglei region, girls are mostly seen as a source of wealth in form of cattle, and are therefore forced into child/early marriages where they are later exposed to gender-based violence and chronic poverty. Marrying off young girls when they are “virgin” is not only considered to generate considerable amount of wealth to the girl’s family, it is also perceived to “protect” the family’s honor since pregnancy outside marriage is generally considered to be a disgrace to the family. In large polygamous families, marrying off young girls is also seen as a way to ease economic hardship by transferring the economic burden to the husband.

Gender Inequality

Among the Dinka, Nuer and Murle cattle-keeping communities of the Greater Jonglei region, girls are often traded for cattle, which is a vital lifeline for many poor families ravaged by decades of war and political instability. Families marry off their girls at a younger age mostly to secure their future; others do it to reduce expenses of educating, clothing and feeding numerous kids from polygamous marriages. Furthermore, families sometimes marry off their young daughters as a mean to educate their sons, repay debts, manage disputes, or settle social, economic and political alliances. In spite of the civil war, the commercialization of the bride price has proliferated among the Dinka communities of Jonglei state to the tune of millions of South Sudanese pounds ($30,000-$70,000 of USD).

Abject Poverty

Harmful traditional practices and norms do fuel and perpetuate child, early and forced marriages and gender-based violence in South Sudan. For example, among the Dinka, Nuer and Murle communities of the Greater Jonglei region, marriage customarily happen whenever a girl has started to menstruate. Therefore, according to traditional practices, which are passed down from generation to generation, any girl that has reached puberty is primed for marriage since she is considered a matured woman by the society. And because traditional practices are part and parcel of the community’s life and identity, it is hard to question them.

Bad Traditional Practices

In the more volatile areas of South Sudan where girls are at high risk of harassment and physical or sexual assault, parents and families would marry off their young daughters out of desperation to ensure their safety. Therefore, in the war afflicted areas of Greater Jonglei region, early, forced and child marriages are adopted sometimes as a coping mechanism in the face of strong hardship, violent conflict and debilitating poverty. This may explain why the Greater Jonglei region has the highest rate of child, forced and forced marriages, and the attendant gender-based violence, in the Republic of South Sudan.

Civil War and Insecurity

Program Objectives & Strategic Outcomes

Empowering adolescent girls and young women

ChildBride Solidarity (CBS) empowers adolescent girls and young women to become agents of change, by helping them to envisage and forge their own pathways in life. ChildBride Solidarity (CBS) works directly with adolescent girls and young women to give them the opportunity and resources to build skills and knowledge, understand and exercise their rights and develop support networks that would be counted upon in times of needs. To achieve the empowering process, ChildBride Solidarity (CBS) will support the establishment of safe space training program that cover life skills, health and financial literacy.

Mobilizing families and engaging communities

To combat gender-based violence and end child, early and forced marriages, the biased traditional practices and customary norms that support the practice of child, early and forced marriages need to be changed or eradicated. Therefore, ChildBride Solidarity mobilizes and engages families and communities to raise awareness of the harmful consequences of child, early and forced marriages in order to change attitudes and reduce the acceptance among those who advocate for child, early and forced marriages as a cultural or religious practice, which has been part of their cultural identity for generations. ChildBride Solidarity uses mass media and advocacy to work with boys and men, religious and traditional leaders, to change attitudes, behaviors and norms around the value of girls and women by helping them to see the benefits of a community which values and supports girls and women to fulfill their full and true potentials.

Providing services to the communities

In order to break down the economic and structural drivers which act as barriers to ending child, early and forced marriages, ChildBride Solidarity provides access to better education, quality healthcare, trauma awareness, adequate child protection mechanism and robust legal aid services to vulnerable girls and at risk young women. Therefore, ChildBride Solidarity provide trainings, mentorship and scholarship programs to keep girls and young women in school. This is because education builds knowledge, opens new opportunities and can help to shift norms around the value of girls in the community. Also, many girls and young women in the Greater Jonglei region have an unmet need for sexual reproductive health care that can put them at risk of unplanned pregnancy and contracting HIV and other STDs. In collaboration with partners and relevant donors, ChildBride Solidarity provides economic incentives that encourage families to consider alternatives to child, early and forced marriages by alleviating their economic hardship and reframing their daughters as valued parts of their families rather than sheer economic burdens to be auctioned off.

Establishing gender-friendly laws and policies

Like most part of South Sudan, the Greater Jonglei region lack robust gendered laws and policies that can help to prevent the practice of child and force marriages and gender-based violence. A strong legal and policy framework can provide an important backdrop for improvements in services, changes in social norms and girls and women empowerment. Therefore, ChildBride Solidarity (CBS) works with state and national government to provide adequate resources, and strong political leadership to strengthening, implementing and resourcing laws and policies, which prevent child marriage and upholding women’s rights. Only a full development and implementation of women-friendly strong laws and policies can adequately address child marriage, forced marriage and gender-based violence in South Sudan.

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