NBeG STATE LEVEL COMMUNITY CONSULTATIVE AND ADVOCACY WORKSHOP ON ENDING CHILD AND FORCEFUL MARRIAGES AS A DRIVER OF CONFLICT WAS SUCCESSFULLY ORGANISED ON 15th FEBRUARY 2023 IN AWEIL
Community Initiative for Partnership and Development (CIPAD) with technical and financial support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has successfully conducted one day Northern Bahr El Ghazal state level Community Consultative and Advocacy Workshop on Ending Child and Forceful Marriages as a driver of conflict in Naivasha Boma of Naivasha Payam in Aweil Center County, Northern Bahr El Ghazal State on 15th February, 2023.
The workshop was attended by 20 (7 females and 13 males) different stakeholders’ representatives invited from chiefs or traditional leaders; youth associations; workers trade union; women associations; religious leaders; farmers’ cooperative associations; law enforcement agencies; Ministry of gender, child and social welfare; Ministry of local government; ministry of peacebuilding; and civil society organizations networks.
The workshop has offered an opportunity that enabled the invited participants deliberately discussed causes of child marriage; the link between child marriage and conflict; and developed resolutions and recommendations aimed at addressing child marriages and improving social cohesion among communities of in Northern Bahr El Ghazal State as key stakeholders and child and women rights protection.
Among the legal framework instruments discussed were South Sudan Child Act, 2008; African Charter on the Rights & Welfare of the Child – ACRWC 1990; and United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child – UNCRC 1989. With the aim of ensuring adequate stakeholders awareness on the rights of the child.
As the summary of the workshop resolutions, participants call for a collective effort to ending child and forceful marriages in the communities of Northern Bahr El Ghazal State with major task given to State Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare; local government officials, law enforcement officers and community leaders.
This activity was successfully implemented with support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s Peace and Community Cohesion Project II (PaCC II) funded by the Government of Sweden.