Olubusayo Ruth Akinola — Head of the Social Welfare, Drug Control, and Crime Prevention Division of the Union — exchanged emails with CG following the release of a new report from the African Union.
A report released by the African Union in mid-February indicates that the continent is not on track to eliminate child marriage by 2030, a Sustainable Development Goal set by the U.N.
Rising global temperatures are among the drivers for child marriage, with extreme weather events and other environmental crises interrupting access to education and its protections, increasing displacement and its potential to raise sexual violence risks, and straining agricultural economies.
But this means that those committed to addressing the impacts of climate change can get involved in helping to end child marriage, too.
The "Report of the African Union Champion on Ending Child Marriage in Africa" has noted some solutions that may help mitigate climate-related risks. Olubusayo Ruth Akinola — Head of the Social Welfare, Drug Control, and Crime Prevention Division of the Union — told CG that these strategies, such as training disaster workers to look out for child marriage risks while responding to floods and droughts, could also be adopted by other countries facing the threats that global warming can bring. (This particular strategy may remind some of the effort to train flight attendants to spot the signs of human trafficking in the course of their travel-based jobs.)
Akinola said further measures could include integrating child marriage prevention into national climate adaptation plans, but she also got more specific in her recommendations.
Shock-responsive cash transfers are direct transfers of money to help families meet their immediate needs after a disaster. "[Prioritizing] households with adolescent girls in high-risk zones" for these transfers could help prevent girls from entering or being forced into harmful relationships due to economic insecurity.
Improving educational continuity amid floods, droughts, and heat waves could help too. Access to education is understood as protective against child marriage, and Akinola named rapid school re-enrollment, climate-resilient school infrastructure, and comprehensive sex and rights education as key.
Sharing advice with other regions, she encouraged stakeholders to break down silos and collaborate, including where financing is involved and with the suggestion to "[link] climate adaptation funding with adolescent empowerment."
That's because, as Akinola concluded, "The climate crisis is not gender-neutral, nor is it child-neutral."
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