Two officials of the African Union (AU) have called for cross-border collaboration to ensure up-to-date data is made available to help tackle the harmful practices of child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM) in the content.

Development Diaries reports that the call was made during a meeting between the African Union Ending Harmful Practices Unit and gender and human rights activists.

Six of the world’s ten countries with the highest rates of child marriage are in West and Central Africa, data from the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) shows.

The average prevalence across the region remains high: about 41 percent of girls marry before reaching the age of 18.

It is understood that participants at the meeting decried the dearth of comprehensive data on child marriage as it undermines the fight against the harmful act.

‘There is a lot of information and statistics on teenage pregnancy but not the same case on child marriage’, AU’s Nena Thundu said.

‘The AU is ready to work with governments and civil society organisations to end these harmful practices’.

Also speaking, the Head of the AU delegation, Lefhoko Kasamang, emphasised the need for cross-border collaborations to effectively fight FGM and child marriage.

‘We are the ones who will end these harmful practices. Let us not assume that somebody else out there will come and end them for us’, Kasamang said.

For his part, the Deputy Directorate of Kenya’s Children’s Services, Mwambi Mong’are, said Kenya was making strides, adding that the government would continue to implement initiatives against child marriage.

Development Diaries calls on Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Labour and Social Protection, Florence Bore, to ensure child rights are enforced as provided for in the Children Act, 2022, and the 2006 Sexual Offences Act.

We also urge all child protection agencies across Africa to enforce child protection laws to ensure the protection of children.

Photo source: DFID