Preventing Child, Early, and Forced Marriage and Countering Violent Extremism in Cabo Delgado Project (Uholo-Raparigas e Jovens)

To prevent CEFM and counter violent extremism, the project, through a range of different activities, sought to achieve several objectives:

• Uplift young women with social support and economic opportunities;
• Shift community norms around CEFM, girls' education, and social positioning;
• Increase AGYW's use of adolescent-responsive health services; and
• Partner with the Government of Mozambique, including provincial and district institutions and local and traditional authorities, to better enforce laws and policies that delay marriage.

To achieve these objectives, activities and achievements over the four years of project implementation included the following:

Uplift young women with social support and economic opportunities - The project sought to provide social, educational, and economic opportunities to reduce early marriage and participation in violent extremism. Activities included:

• Involving adolescent girls and adolescent boys in educational activities about rights, healthy behaviours, services, and equitable relationships (this activity reached 76,940 adolescent girls and 67,588 adolescent boys);
• Connecting with AGYW through household visits with information on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) with a focus on contraception/family planning, gender-based violence (GBV), and gender equality (a total of 39,472 AGYW reached);
• Providing new vocational opportunities for AGYW (more than 100 AGYW reached); and
• Supporting savings and credit groups for AGYW (in total 895 AGYW reached).

Shift community norms around CEFM, girls' education, and social positioning - The project worked at all levels of society - including with adolescent girls and young women, their families, and communities - to shift social norms and behaviours that perpetuate CEFM. Activities included:

• Locally led community dialogues with men and women on girls' education, early pregnancy and unions, SRH, GBV, and gender equality (in total, 6,120 community dialogues were held). These dialogues were in some cases accompanied by screenings of locally produced videos that highlighted some of the challenges faced by young girls. The project partnered with IlluminAid, which provided video production training.
• Social Analysis and Action (SAA) exercises focused on girls' challenges with community leaders' committees and influencers. SAA is a community-led social change process through which individuals and communities explore and challenge social norms, beliefs, and practices around gender and sexuality that shape their lives.
• Educational radio broadcasts on SRH, GBV, CEFM, girls' education, and gender equality (in total 63 radio broadcasts).

Increase AGYWs' use of adolescent-responsive services - The project worked to improve access to education and youth- and gender-responsive health services for AGYW, ensuring health and educational facilities establish protocols to identify and address risks of CEFM and GBV. Activities included:

• Strengthening the capacity of school and health facility staff on gender, adolescent and youth SRH, and GBV (in total, this activity reached 231 schools and 103 health facility staff);
• Expanding mobile brigades for SRH outreach services in communities and secondary schools to reach AGYW and adolescent boys and young men (in total, this activity reached 19,652 young people: 10,440 AGYW and 9,212 adolescent boys); and
• Improving access and quality of GBV services in health facilities (in total 11 health facilities).

Partner with the Government of Mozambique, including provincial and district institutions and local and traditional authorities, to better enforce laws and policies that delay marriage - The project worked to ensure that state judicial, law enforcement, and executive officials, including traditional courts, are aware and supportive of the national CEFM law, and that local officials publicly condemn CEFM and promote AGYWs' rights. Activities included:

• Training judicial agents, members of community courts, and police agents on the CEFM law and other laws protecting girls' and women's rights, gender sensitivity, and GBV (in total, 53 judicial agents, 45 members of community courts, and 155 police agents were trained);
• Supporting provincial and district officials in disseminating the CEFM law;
• Advocating to ministerial working groups for policy advancing girls' education and health; and
• Supporting Girls Not Brides (Coalition for the Elimination of Child Marriage) in Mozambique.

As Pathfinder explains, "In Cabo Delgado province - one of Mozambique's poorest and most vulnerable to natural disasters and conflict - 18% of young women ages 20 to 24 marry by age 15; 61% marry or live with a partner by age 18. Cabo Delgado has the second highest rate of child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM) and the highest rate of adolescent pregnancy in the country - 65% of girls ages 15 to 19 are mothers or pregnant. Since 2017, attacks by armed insurgents have disrupted health and social services, education, and livelihoods; displaced populations; and led to increased poverty. These effects have exacerbated CEFM, reduced access to essential sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, and increased gender-based violence (GBV) - including sexual violence - against adolescent girls and young women (AGYW). In 2019, Mozambique passed a national law criminalizing CEFM, but the law is not well known or enforced."

As the conflict and humanitarian crisis deepened in Cabo Delgado province over the course of implementation, the project team had to adapt accordingly. To find out more about the challenges of operating in an evolving, conflict-affected setting and the key adaptation strategies, lessons, and recommendations shared by the project, see Preventing Child, Early, and Forced Marriage and Countering Violent Extremism in Cabo Delgado: Implementation Lessons from a Conflict Setting [PDF, April 2024].