•PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu with First Lady Esther, South Africa’s First Lady Tobeka Zuma and Ethiopia’s First Lady Roman Tesfay during the opening of the First African Girl Summit on Ending Child Marriage in Africa held at the Government Complex in Lusaka yesterday. Picture by THOMAS NSAMA/STATE HOUSE

By JAMES MUYANWA –
PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu has said that the Government has constituted an 11-ministry consortium to spearhead the campaign against child marriages in the country.
Mr Lungu said the ministries are that of Labour and Social Security, Youth, Sports and Child Development, Higher and General Education, Chiefs and Traditional Affairs as well as that of Health.
Others are the Local Government and Housing, Community Development and Social Welfare, Home Affairs, Justice and the Ministry of Gender.
“I am glad to mention that my Government has also developed a national strategy on ending child marriages which will be launched soon. This strategy is indeed one of Zambia’s commitments aimed at curbing the vice,” Mr Lungu said.
He said this when he officiated at the first African Girls Summit on Ending Child Marriages in Africa held at the New Government Complex in Lusaka yesterday.
Mr Lungu said that Zambia co-led with Canada the global advocacy that translated into the adoption of the United Nations (UN) resolution on ending forced, early and child marriage in 2014.
“Subsequently, the continued global advocacy culminated into the recognition of the child marriage as a global challenge requiring a specific target of focus for the next 15 years.
“With all such efforts, the child marriage rate in Zambia has reduced from an estimated 42 per cent to approximately 32 per cent.
This reduction has largely been attributed to the multi-sectoral approach involving Government, development partners civil society organisations, traditional leaders and the private sector in curbing child marriage,” he said.
Mr Lungu said globally, however, child marriage remained one of the major forms of violation of children’s rights whose perpetration had largely been influenced by people without knowledge about children’s rights.
An estimated 14 million adolescent and teen girls are married off and almost always forced into the arrangement by the parents.
He said that in many African countries child marriage was deep-rooted and was driven by poverty.
“Studies in most African countries have further revealed that at least 30 per cent of all girls are married before the age of 18. The high number of young wives in Africa led the African Union to launch a two-year campaign to end child marriages.
“This campaign is aimed at ensuring that the AU member states develop appropriate policy actions that would raise awareness and understanding of the problem.
“The AU has taken a step further by advising member states to, accordingly, enforce laws and policies that generally protect children,” he said.