The government has implemented several policy and institutional measures to end child marriage and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) through ratifying international and regional human rights instruments and agreements. In turn, in the last two decades, the country has made significant strides in reducing girls’ vulnerability to child marriage and FGM. However, in the face of the progress, many girls are still at risk.
To address this risk,
currently the government has launched a National Roadmap that enables to end
early marriage and FGM by 2025.
As it is set in document, the purpose of this Roadmap aims to clearly stipulate the key strategies, approaches and evidence-based interventions which will be employed to achieve the national target: to eliminate child marriage and FGM by 2025.
As the document indicates the Roadmap has five pillar strategies such as Empowering adolescent girls and their families, community engagement, enhancing systems, accountability and services across sectors, creating and strengthening an enabling environment and increasing data and evidence generation, and use.
To effectively implement the Roadmap and realize the set targets, different approaches are devised. Among these, social norms approach is taken as a vital approach that enables to address collective behavior changes, foster community empowerment, and create positive social norms.
Gender transformative approach is the other way regarded as instrumental to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. As to the document, the approach is central to intervene and address the root causes of child marriage and FGM.
Yalemtsegay Asfaw , Women, Child and Youth Minister said that the launched Roadmap is very helpful to end up harmful traditional practices that are exercised on women and children. More importantly, it is essential to create awareness in the rural parts of the country towards the practices.
According to her, as the rate of the vulnerability from these two traditional practices are vary from state to state, community to community, the Ministry has been working giving due emphasis to the rural parts of the country, where the practices are carried out commonly.
She further said that beyond awareness creation, several measures, including bringing individuals who were committed in the practices before the law, have been taken by the government to end up such harmful traditional practices. “Every stakeholder should discharge his/ her responsibilities in accordance with the strategy set in the Road map,” she remarked.
Alemayehu Mamo, Assistant Head of Public Relations with the Ministry on his part said that as Female Genital Mutilation and early marriage are activities that violate the human rights of women and children, the Ministry gives greater emphasis to address them through preparing legal frameworks.
The Roadmap, in this regard, is very helpful to bring in the much-needed imputes to Ethiopia’s goal to achieve global and continental commitments on protecting the health and socioeconomic impacts of child marriage and female genital mutilation, which often considered as traditional and cultural practices among Ethiopian communities.
As to him the newly launched national Roadmap will be implemented by a consortium of national actors, which brings together the Ethiopian Ministry of Women, Children and Youth in coordination with Ministries of Health, Education, Finance, Labor and Social Affairs, as well as various other sector stakeholders.
As he stated, to implement the Roadmap a total of three billion birr is needed in five year times. And different ministries, states of the country, and international organization have pledged to support its implementation.
The establishment of the National Alliance to End Child Marriage and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is the other conducive environment to realize the Roadmap as it paves the way to strength the participation of stakeholders, he remarked.
The Ethiopian Herald September 18, 2019
BY TAMERU REGASA
