LEADING THE WAY

Aug 17 , 2019.

President Sahle-Work Zewde launched a five-year national road map to end child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM ) with Yalem-Tsegay Asfaw, minister of Women, Children & Youth, in a ceremony held at the Skylight Hotel an Africa Avenue on August 14, 2019.

“The will to end child marriage and FGM exists,” said the President. “I’m delighted that we now have a plan which is a clear demonstration of the government’s commitment to make harmful practices history in Ethiopia,” she added.

The road map is part of the government’s effort to keep the pledge it made at the first Global Girl Summit in London in 2014 to eliminate child marriage and FGM by 2025 and is also a component of the Sustainable Development Goals, which targets to achieve gender equality by 2030.

Ethiopia has made substantial progress in reducing the number of girls exposed to the harmful practice of child marriage and FGM in the last decade. However, 40pc of young women aged 20 to 24 years are still married before the legal age of 18 and 14pc before the age of 15.

The plan, expected to cost 94 million dollars, was developed by the Ministry of Women, Children & Youth, designated as the lead agency, in coordination with the National Alliance to End Child Marriage & FGM, the government, UN agencies, non-governmental organisations and civil society.

PUBLISHED ON Aug 17,2019 [ VOL 20 , NO 1007]