IBSA Fund Approves Project on Ending Child Marriage in Malawi and Zambia

This month, the Board of Directors of the India, Brazil and South Africa Facility for Poverty and Hunger Alleviation (IBSA Fund) approved the new project proposal, “Eliminating Child Marriages in Malawi and Zambia and Offering Scholarships to Child Marriage Survivors”.

The project’s goal is to promote national legislation and empower communities in the two East African countries to end child marriages. Moreover, it aims to help girls and young women who have had child marriages reintegrate into society and the educational system. This is a pilot project focused on SDG 5, achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls, with potential to be scaled up and used as a regional approach by the African Union.

This project aims to annul 4,000 child marriages in each country, empower and give visibility to survivors, and return children to school. It seeks to establish national psychosocial support services for children, provide training to government officials on enforcing child protection legislation, and develop rapid response and referral services. The long-term goal of this intervention is to increase educational opportunities and income-generating potential for youth, and especially girls, in 20 communities.

UN Women is partnering with Malawian and Zambian’ ministries, national women’s organizations, local women’s groups, and community and religious leaders on project implementation.

This project will add to the extensive portfolio of the multi-million-dollar IBSA Fund. A partnership with the United Nations, the IBSA Fund has become a remarkable example of development cooperation and is leading to impactful results in the Global South.

For more information on IBSA, please visit the IBSA Fund Website or download the latest IBSA Portfolio Report. For questions about IBSA, please contact Mithre Sandrasagra at mithre.sandrasagra@unossc.org or Anita Raman at anita.raman@unossc.org.