tests

Following the Girl Summit 2014, 28 Too Many will work with a partner to develop a youth focused project which uses our research findings to develop tools and resources for community based action to tackle FGM.

1. Awareness campaign at grassroots level in the UK.
2. Community mobilisation involving youth and community champions supported by Religious Leaders.
3. Human rights and legal support services to the victims of and survivors of all forms of harmful traditional practices and violence.
4. Life and skill development for survivors.
5. Training, informing and sensitising service providers and professionals.

• Raise the profile of our FGM programmes in 5 countries (Liberia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somaliland and The Gambia);
• Put increasing emphasis through using ActionAid’s new Theory of Change and research (e.g. in Liberia, Ethiopia) on understanding what works to reduce prevalence of FGM;
• Solidarity – increase contact with relevant groups (feminist, religious, youth, child rights) in five countries and globally;
• Advocacy – Join together with organisations and programmes to build momentum and advocate for ending FGM and CEFM.

Adinkra is committed to raising the awareness of FGM/C and CEFM by writing articles about this in both the printed and online version of the magazine. In August 2014, Anowah was on Voice of Africa Radio and spoke about FGM/C. The new version of the magazine will be out by the end of September 2014. The hardcopy will be distributed to some states in America, London and Ghana. We will be in Ghana in December 2014 and are planning to talk about these issues at events that we will be attending.

The African Union Commission is committed to the fight against Child, Early and Forced Marriage and other harmful traditional practices affecting girls and women in Africa and will continue in a coordinated and concerted manner to strongly advocate against negative practices that impinge on or contravene the rights and welfare of the child, in particular the girl-child.

Launch of the AU Campaign in selected countries that have high prevalence rate of child marriage, launches will be done over a three year period.

We will have an impact assessment event with Member States, Regional Economic Communities and partners in May 2017 to see the progress of the country launches and the way forward.

To join and work in collaboration with Portsmouth City Council’s safe neighbourhood and Hampshire Police to introduce measures to combat FGM and CEFM through education and support.

My name is Farooq Aftab, of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has for the past five years unequivocally condemned FGM, which is a heinous and un-Islamic practice. We will continue to do so through a variety of measures and means, such as distribution of national literature, anti-FGM discussion groups and workshops, awareness and public media campaigns and also through international measures such as A&E clinics in sub-Saharan Africa.

At the FGM “Hope Clinic, I, Aissa Sara Edon will:

Offer personal and holistic health treatment.

Provide education and advice to families about the health risks and dangers of FGMs.

Offer de-infibulation under different forms of anaesthesia.

Inform families about UK law and safeguarding issues around FGM.

Offer a safe place for women to be heard and to freely discuss these issues.

Educate staff.

Provide holistic care for women and girls and raising awareness about FGM.

To create awareness on the effects ofFGM and early marriage.

I’m going to try and give a platform for young girls and women to speak up about their experiences of forced marriage, violence and abuse to challenge taboos and raise awareness.

I commit myself to raise awareness within my community regarding negative impacts of FGM and forced marriage. The crucial points of the girl summit charter will be displayed to young girls during seminars. Finally, I will release the gospel to young girls during campaigns for them to understand their identity and dignity. In the next couple of years, I plan to build a centre for young girls that has been physically and sexually abused in the past, for them to be re-educated and experienced the love of God.

Our commitment is that we will help our partners in Nepal and India to help end child, early and enforced marriage.

Along with colleagues, I will carry out research on the causes and consequences of early marriage in 2014-15 among the children who are already married in the Young Lives study, will raise the policy implications of our findings and make these available through our websites: http://www.younglives-ethiopia.org and http://www.younglives.org.uk” by the end of 2015

I pledge to talk about negative effects of child marriage and raise awareness in communities I work in.

We will provide free copies and downloads of three short films that we have made highlighting the trauma caused by Forced Marriage and FGM in the UK to any individual or organisation working to eradicate these practices.

In 2014,AWEPA islaunching a 4-year programme in Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt towards abandonment. The programme is in collaboration with Plan Nederland, and will be jointly implemented by AWEPA and Plan Country Offices. The programme is funded by the Government of the Netherlands and will approach the issue from three levels: institutional, civil society and community.

We will teach about adolescent health issues and civic citizenship for rural girls.

Action 1: Developing information, awareness raising and dissemination material on child, early and forced marriage, as applied in local contexts, in Pakistan, and on the basis of the Charter adopted at the Girl Summit 2014 in London.

Our recently announced Project iMlango will aim to deliver improved educational outcomes for girls and boys in rural areas of Kenya, using:

I commit to continue to prioritise tackling domestic and sexual abuse, particularly against women and children during my time in office. As part of this I will work with partners and agencies across Avon and Somerset to tackle FGM. It is only by working together that we can properly identify girls at risk, protect them from harm and bring offenders to justice.

On behalf of the REACH programme, I planto usefootball for boys and girls to campaign against FGM and CEFM in Uganda.

1. Press meet in Kathmandu Nepal to widely disseminate the commitment and learning of the Girl Summit 2014. By the end of July 2014
2. Launching a new movement: “Saving Girls Lives and Dignity” – the holistic spectrum of Girls Empowerment. On 11 October 2014, the International Day for Girl Child
3. Organizing “Girls Summit Nepal 2015” / 2^nd National Conference on Child Marriage & Dowry Eradication, Nepal. January 2015
4. Evidence generation for innovative approach: Child Marriage & Dowry Free VDC 2015 – 2016
5. Advocacy with Constituent Assembly Members to Incorporate Child Marriage & Dowry Issues in new constitution of Nepal. July – Dec 2014
6. Technical Assistance to Government of Nepal, Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare to complete the development of comprehensive and implementable National Strategy to End Child Marriage in Nepal . July – Dec 2014
7. Advocacy with government of Nepal to address the issues of Child Marriage and Dowry through multi-sectoral approach and to develop costed action plan to end Dowry. August 2014 onwards
8. Mobilization of Goodwill Ambassadors (Kollywood Actress Garima Panta & Dr. CK Singh) in sensitizing the people against child marriage and dowry and doing mass awareness. July 2014 onwards
9. Scaling up the trend of felicitating and honoring the Youth Activist and Role Model for Child Marriage & Dowry. January 2015 and every January
10. Scaling up of Child Marriage Eradication Committee in the remaining districts of Nepal through the government of Nepal’s National Strategy to End Child Marriage (which is being developed). July – Dec 2014 to incorporate in the strategy
11. Application of # Youth for Change Approach to End Child Marriage and Dowry in Nepal. Nov 2014 – January 2015 for development and Mobilization onwards.

Understanding the Economic Impacts of Child Marriage – International Center for Research on Women and the World Bank ($4 million over 3 years) – Supported by BMGF, in partnership with CIFF, ICRW and the WB will conduct a ground-breaking research grant to evaluate the economic costs of child marriage. It will generate robust global, regional and country analysis of the economic consequences of child marriage, and help to reposition the issue within global development.

Tostan ($2.7 million over 4 years) – BMGF has awarded this grant to strengthen Tostan’s systems for monitoring, learning and adaptation of their Community Empowerment Program in 6 West African countries. This will help them to better understand factors that contribute to success in their work on governance, education, health, environment and economic empowerment.

Request for Proposals (RFP) for Adolescent Reproductive Health and Nutrition in Ethiopia ($6 million over 5 years) focused on reducing gender inequities.These grants will seek to improve adolescent reproductive health and nutrition in Ethiopia by addressing structural determinants, including early marriage, amongst the most vulnerable girls. The foundation seeks to expand the body of work and knowledge in the adolescent health field by investing in innovative programs that show proof of scale and proof of impact, and are supported by national policies to change social norms that adversely affect adolescents’ ability to transition to a healthy and productive life.

The Church of England pledges to work with other churches in the world wide Anglican communion to protect the dignity and liberty of women and work with other religious leaders to that end. I personally pledge to work with religious leaders in Coventry to seek to put an end to these ordeals of human suffering.

1. Awareness campaign at family/ household level.
2. Community mobilisation involving youth and mass people using neighbourhood platforms.
3. Human rights and legal aid services to the victims of child marriage and survivors of violence.
4. Survivors support, psychosocial counselling and life skill development.
5. Research and learning.

Breakthrough is working towards changing the social norms and traditions that perpetuate early marriage across two states in India – Bihar and Jharkhand. We are working towards this cultural shift by riasing the awareness of communities where this practice is prevalent through community mobilisation and engagement using cultual tools like the ‘Theatre of the Oppressed.’ Anew generation of youth leaders are also simultaneously being trained to lead the change. Breathrough is also training service providers and actively networking with them to ensurea 360 degree approach towards tackling this social evil.

I will continue to involve young girls to make and produce films and messages in my TV and radio shows in order to eliminate harmful practices.

BSR will organize a webinar for our corporate members to discuss the role the private sector can play to support girls’ health and empowerment, including addressing and bringing awareness to sensitive issues such as female genital mutilation and child marriage.

CAMPE is a coalition of more than 1000 NGOs working across Bangladesh ensuring access to quality basic education for all. This includes the basic element of gender justice and equity. CAMPE activities to be carried out:

CARE is committed to women’s and girls’ empowerment globally and recognizes that international development and human rights goals will never be achieved as long as girls and boys are condemned to a life of poverty and inequality through child marriage practices. To this end, CARE commits to the Tipping Point initiative, a project lasting through 2017, which addresses child marriage in Nepal and Bangladesh and leverages advocacy and influencing opportunities in the U.S. and globally. The project is generously supported by The Kendeda Fund.

Through Tipping Point, we will work with girls, boys, men, women, and community leaders to critically explore the factors that sustain child marriage practices and innovate ways to alter the forces perpetuating child marriage; bring different actors together—including men and boys—to build social movements for change; support sustainable, social and economic alternatives for girls that allow them to have more options in their own lives; and connect activists across regional and national networks.

This includes CARE’s commitment to:

• Invest US $6.6 million over the next three years addressing the root causes of child marriage and influencing advocacy opportunities in the US and globally;
• Work to reverse the tide against child marriage in 16 sub districts of Nepal and 90 villages of Bangladesh;
• Actively pursue collaborative learning with program participants, partners, governments, and researchers and contribute to broadening the dialogue on the root causes and multiple dimensions of child marriage practices, and on strategies to end those practices;
• Utilize learning and analysis of root causes of child marriage to influence public dialogues in Nepal and Bangladesh; including strengthening social movements and partners’ capacity to conduct advocacy at national and sub-national level and influence policy dialogue around the issue;
• Mobilize and engage with strategic partners, coalitions and decision-makers in Nepal and Bangladesh to influence key national and global dialogues and policy processes;
• Build on CARE’s long history of advocacy on child marriage within US foreign policy as co-chair of the Girls Not Brides-USA coalition. CARE will continue to work with partners through GNB USA to execute on multi-year advocacy strategies aimed at influencing the U.S. governments to actualize policy commitments to end child marriage as well link to global advocacy opportunities, including the post 2015 dialogue as appropriate;
• Implement innovative monitoring of U.S. government implementation of the US Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based-Violence Globally and child marriage policy commitments, in collaboration with the Aspen Institute.

The Government of Catalonia joins the Girl Summit Campaign to support the international global task to eradicate female genital mutilation (FGM). It is committed to implement in all public policies a gender human rights based approach to transform inequalities among women and men. On behalf of the Government of Catalonia, the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation adopts women’s human rights as a main objective in cooperation development policies. This strategy is based on the Convention to Eliminate all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the international commitments reaffirmed at Beijing+20, the North and South women’s rights movements, and gender agendas that seek to transform the structures that bring about their subordination.

Catalan cooperation works promoting women’s health rights, especially the right to their own bodies. Sexual and reproductive rights as a specific goal. It will also focus on women’s right to live a life free from violence. With this aim, the Government of Catalonia assume the following commitments:

1. Enhancing the Governmental Protocol for FGM prevention in Catalonia under the FGM Working Group. This Working Group was created in 2001 with the mandate of designing an action plan to end FMG and will develop the following actions:

-Strengthen the capacities of those professionals involved in identifying and preventing FGM.

-Raise the Protocol’s community based approach in order to involve local associations which work against this practice both in Catalonia and in the countries of origin.

2. In the framework of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the conference under the title “Women’s Sexual Rights and Reproductive Rights: a Transnational View of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)” will be organised. The conference is focused to increase awareness among professionals involved in the prevention of FGM as well as the immigrant community in Catalonia. Delegates from African organizations, “Tostan” and “Association des Juristes Sénégalaises” will be guest in the conference.

3. Advocacy on parliamentary action to adopt awareness-raising positions on FGM and promote measures to eradicate it within the international human rights framework. Moreover, parliamentary working group’s capacities on FGM eradication will be strengthened.

4. Setting up partnerships with women’s rights associations.

5. Awareness-raising on FGM addressed to the Catalan society in order to prevent and eradicate this practice.

6. Specific funding support:

-€783,000: “Social, economic and political empowerment of pastoralist and agro-pastoralist women in the Somali region, Ethiopia”, Intermón Oxfam.

-€805,000: “Women of Mali: sexual and reproductive rights of women, the Republic of Mali”, Cooperacció.

In our first year and a half, Catapult has crowdfunded $1,575,940 to back projects to end child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM). We pledge to continue to bring individuals, companies, and nonprofit organizations together to fight these issues and support girls’ and women’s equality worldwide.

Raise awareness and support women, children, men and families affected and living with the consequences of FGM, engage with practicing communities and hold workshops for professionals and those working with families. Participate in research programmes and co-productivity.

Plaidoyer auprès de la commission de l’Union Africaine afin d’inscrire les MGF et les mariages d’enfants comme une priorité de l’agenda après 2015

CIFF is partnering with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the International Centre for Research on Women, and the World Bank to conduct new and important research on the economic case for ending child marriage.

Christian Aid will demonstrate that we are making a significant contribution towards a reduction in gender based violence and specifically to changes to the social norms which promote or condone it. In particular, we will scale up our work with faith groups working with both women and men to challenge and change social norms around gender based violence including harmful traditional practices such as early and forced marriage, female genital cutting, dowry and bride price.

The Coalition for Adolescent Girls commits to advocating for a world where adolescent girls are able to fully realize their rights, navigate challenges, and access opportunities during the transition from childhood to adulthood and beyond.

CAG commits to being a resource for and disseminating information todonors, policy-makers, and other key decision-makers regarding programmatic, funding, and research priorities for adolescent girls.

I will continue to influence change and confirm to work with all concerned. I will continue to support women at my clinic and educate everyone about CEFM and FGM.

Dasra will:

• educate funders across the globe through the dissemination of our recent research into Ending Child Marriage and Early Pregnancy in India: Marry Me Later http://www.dasra.org/research/flip/report/marry-me-later-full-report.
• form a collaborative Giving Circle of donors who will commit $1 million to support child marriage focussed organisations working in India and support them to dramatically scale their operations and impact over the next three years.
• form a working group of child marriage focussed organizations to build more momentum behind the cause, foster collaboration and garner more support across the country.
• work towards mainstreaming the issue of child marriage in the Indian popular media, and in doing so raise awareness and garner support to end child marriage within a generation.

We will continue to support victims of FGM, Forced Marriage and Honour Based Violence in offering legal aid or pro bono assistance where legal aid is not available.

My pledge is to organise a meeting with both Nottingham High School and Nottingham Girls’ High School inviting National Council of Women members to raise awareness and discuss these issues.

I am doing a global campaign to end FGM and CEFM and awareness raising

I will totally commit myself into doing awareness raising , campaigning everywhere in schools , in the community and conferences including religious leaders, health workers, young people , un agencies, professionals , teachers , other organisations . And social media

By end-2015, ECPAT will lead efforts for an agreed upon definition, among major INGOs, UN agencies, Civil Society Networks, for situations of child marriage that constitute the commercial sexual exploitation of girls.

By mid-2015, ECPAT will complete a high quality research paper onhow CEFM, in some cases, leads to the sexual exploitation of girl victims of such marriages through prostitution, pornography and/ortrafficking.

By mid-2015, all member organisations of the ECPAT Network in 75 countries are informed, facilitated and encouraged to raise awareness of CEFM through local and national efforts.

By early-2015, all member organisations of the ECPAT Network working directly with victims of CEFM will be encouraged to consult with victims in order to bring their voices into the formulation of legislation and action.

Over course of the next year, ECPAT will raise awareness of CEFM through social media messaging on our official channels, including Facebook and Twitter.

Through the creation of the END FGM European Network, we will contribute to developing a human rights based and coordinated approach to FGM and establish coalitions with organisations and partnership with public authorities to end the practice.

The End FGM/C Social Change Campaign will galvanise an Africa-led, global movement to end FGM/C in one generation. We will use a range of social change communications approaches at community, national, regional and international levels to bring about a social transformation in attitudes, promoting the value of girlhood without FGM/C. We support national social change campaigns in ten focal countries (Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, and Sudan).

(1) Hold governments accountable to their international and regional commitments to end CEFM and FGM

(2) Call for the repeal of sex discriminatory laws that contribute to CEFM and FGM

(3) Advocate for implementation of the human rights framework by all governments to end CEFM and FGM

The European Commission will support actions to:

The European External Action Service will:

• Launch a diplomatic outreach on FGM and child, early and forced marriage
• Raise FGM and child, early and forced marriage in the political and human rights dialogues with relevant partner countries
• Include FGM and child, early and forced marriage in European Union annual dialogues with civil society organisations in relevant partner countries;
• Integrate FGM and child, early and forced marriage in gender and child rights training for European Union staff working in EU delegations in countries affected;
• Continue to work closely with the African Union and African group at the UN on further initiatives to strengthen the global fight against FGM;
• Continue to support advocacy for improved national legislation on FGM where needed;
• Continue to support capacity-building initiatives for public and civil society organisations.

FaithAction will commit to spreading the news about the summit, and encourage and support faith based organisations working with those on the front line in the UK. We will also disseminate learning to the health and social care voluntary sector strategic partnership

To empower girls about their rights through awareness, education and advocacy by taking it on as part of our routine projects. Promote Comprehensive Sexuality Programmes in school through a signed petition on www.change.org

I have been wondering what these ‘safe spaces’ look like. Then it dawned on me when I was young where I felt the most free to express myself. Thus I have decided to fundraise to build a ‘tree house’ in rural Zimbabwe. A space where girls like me can go to be free, get help, learn vocational skills and plot how we are going to take over the world.

I, Fatimat Aduke Obelawo, promise to bring to the fore campaign against Early/ Child Marriages and FGM/C with more vigor to galvanize support against harmful practices as I go by the Information, Education and Communication components of the activities of the state Agency both at the community and state levels.

The Gambia to be free from FGM, Early Marriage through awareness campaigns

Advocate and raise the awareness of people, both Boys and Girls, Men and Women in all the Regions of The Gambia

We will undertake a mass advocacy campaign on the electronic media about how we can end FGM and Early Child marriage.

We will ensure that the message of ending FGM and Early Child Marriage becomes a thing of the past and shall work with all community stakeholders to ensure that it becomes a reality to the benefit of the unborn generation.

Following the Girl Summit, FORWARD commits to continue to;

• Work with African Diaspora communities in the UK to raise awareness of the effects of FGM, support those affected by FGM through support and referral services and to empower women in the community to become leaders in the campaign against FGM.
• Build on our partnerships and capacity building work with local, woman-led organisations in Africa to support those affected by FGM and Child Marriage, develop our knowledge and understanding of these practices and to eliminate their occurrence through network building, community education programmes and PEER research.
• Involve young people in the campaign against FGM in the UK through education, support and training to empower them to help create change in their communities.
• Engage with key decision makers and offer policy guidance and recommendations at local, regional, national and international based on evidence to equip practitioners and policy makers with the knowledge to respond effectively to women and girls at risk of and affected by FGM, child marriage and maternal health dangers.

My pledge as a man is to organise meetings, community outreaches , elders forum, women forums, moran forums and conferences within the maasai community and conduct advocacy sesion with youths in and out of school , inviting National Council of youths to raise awareness and discuss issues concerning elimination of Female Genital mutilation, Girlchild education and ending gender based violence within my community.

Be one of the ten champions in the campaign on ending child marriages titled “Not Ripe for Marriage” by Roots Africa, a Zimbabwean non profit which is campaigning against early, forced and child marriages. I am strengthening Roots Africa’s capacity as a youth led organisation by volunteering my development expertise and musical talent for the cause.

I will record a song “Just because I am a girl” and also use a gender song recorded in 2010 with my children , titled “Takaenzana” meaning we are the same to ensure that the message on gender equality is heard. I will also help them design effective dialogues with local Chiefs to tackle root causes of early, forced and child marriages and provide leadership support for the campaign to be a success.

My true life story about what happened to me and my sisters when we became Child brides. I plan to spread my story as widely as I possibly can to show the impact that Child marriage has on young girls.

• Girlguiding will continue to empower girls and young women to be a powerful force for change.
• We will continue to listen to and consult girls and young women within and outside Girlguiding about their views and experiences and support them to speak out on issues that matter most to them.
• Youth participation will remain central to developing our programme for girls and young women.
• Through our programme we will continue to raise awareness of girls’ rights in the UK and internationally.
• We will ensure the appropriate safeguarding resources are in place to support our members across the UK regarding FGM and forced marriage.
• We will advocate for girls’ rights to be at the heart of the post 2015 development framework.

Expand and empower the movement: We commit to bringing on 100 new members a year, to educating and engaging new champions, and to building the influence and coordination of member organisations and our partners through a new series of capacity-building webinars and meetings. Deadline: End of 2015.

Help identify what works and how we measure it: Building on our work to develop a ‘Theory of Change on Child Marriage’, Girls Not Brides commits to launching a process to bring together experts and practitioners to identify indicators to measure progress and impact on child marriage. Deadline: July 2015

Hold governments accountable: Girls Not Brides will continue to advocate for major inter-governmental processes and fora, as well as governments in high-prevalence countries, to commit to taking action on child marriage. In particular, Girls Not Brides will advocate for a target on child, early and forced marriage to be included in the post-2015 development framework, and for child marriage to be addressed in global and regional intergovernmental bodies. Deadline: End of 2015.

Expand the funding base: Lasting change has to happen on the ground and realising this on a meaningful scale requires adequate resourcing to support programmatic work. Girls Not Brides will therefore continue to advocate for an increase in long-term funding to address child marriage, from both existing and new donors, including funding from governments of high-prevalence countries. Deadline: Ongoing.

Raise the profile of promising national efforts: Girls Not Brides will bring attention to actions from around the world that have the potential to advance national efforts to end child marriage. In particular, Girls Not Brides will continue to advocate for the coordination of efforts to end child marriage in high-prevalence countries, the development and implementation of nation-wide plans and the meaningful inclusion of civil society in nation-wide responses. Deadline: Ongoing.

To end FGM and Early and Forced Marriagewe need to put money into the hands of courageous women and women’s groups on the ground. TheGlobal Fund for Women pledges to establish a dedicated Fund for grassroots activism by women and girls to make that happen.

The Global Partnership will continue to intensify its efforts to enable more girls to get the schooling they deserve, particularly at the basic education level. To that end, the Global Partnership commits to:

• Providing stronger incentives, through our new funding model, for countries to collect more and better data about girls’ access to education, safe and supportive learning environments, and their learning outcomes. The data should include reliable information about other factors – such as family income, geography, disability, ethnicity, language and more – that significantly affect whether girls get quality schooling. With that data, nations will be better equipped to identify where the needs are greatest and whether various policies and interventions are working.
• Revising our education sector plan preparation and appraisal guides (or PPAG) that
• help nations put in place policies that promote greater gender parity, and, going
• further, gender equality. These PPAGs, which the Global Partnership is updating in collaboration with UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning, reflects recent changes in the Global Partnership’s strategic plan. They will also be supported by incentives in our new funding model.

1. CEFM in the Post-2015 Development Agenda – Canada will continue to drive forward international engagement on CEFM. This year, the top priority is to build consensus for a target on CEFM in the post-2015 development agenda. We will work with partners around the world to this end.

2. Partnership with UNICEF– Canada is contributing $20 million over two years to UNICEF toward ending child, early and forced marriage. The project aims to accelerate the movement to end child marriage in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Yemen and Zambia by supporting efforts in these countries to strengthen programming and political support to end the practice. We are pleased to be working in close coordination with the UK and the Netherlands, who are also partnering with UNICEF.

3. African Union Campaign to End Child Marriage – Canada knows that the leadership of high-prevalence countries is essential in efforts to end CEFM. We are pleased to provide support to the African Union Campaign to End Child Marriage.

4. Royal Commonwealth Society – Canada will provide institutional support to the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS). RCS engages with youth, civil society, business and governmental networks to address issues that matter to the citizens of the Commonwealth, and its primary focus is the promotion of young people throughout the Commonwealth. Canada will support the efforts of the Royal Commonwealth Society to raise awareness in Commonwealth countries about the need to end CEFM.

5. Canadian Focus – Canada is committed to strengthening our domestic and consular approach to ensure that CEFM does not occur on Canadian soil or affect Canadians abroad. The Criminal Code protects against a broad range of criminal offences that may be committed both prior to and following a forced marriage. We will continue to build our capacity to help Canadians facing forced marriages abroad as well as victims upon their return to Canada. In 1997, the Criminal Code was amended to clarify that aggravated assault includes FGM.

Denmark will continue its long-standing and staunch support – both politically and financially – to gender equality and empowerment of women and girls. Denmark will continue its fight against the harmful practices of Female Genital Mutilation and Child, Early and Forced Marriage that ruin the lives of thousands of young girls and women.

Egypt is committed to make all efforts to preserve the dignity of the girl child, and the value of the girl of being “whole” and in control of her own body and life. We are committed to promoting girls’ education and encouraging all those who are rejecting FGM/C and Child Marriage in Egypt to say it out loud and influence others.

Ethiopia commits to achieving the total elimination of FGM/C and Child, Early and Forced Marriage by 2025 through a strategic, multi-sectorial approach. Our goal is also in line with Ethiopia’s objective to reach middle income country status, with the country’s overall development being closely linked to greater opportunities for women and girls. Our approach puts girls at the heart of our commitment, working closely with them, their families and communities, to end these practices for good and break the cycle of harmful traditional practices. We will achieve our aim through a four pronged approach:

1. Through incorporating relevant indicators in the National Plan and the National Data Collection Mechanisms including the 2015 Demographic and Health Survey to measure the situation of FGM/C and CEFM and to establish a clear bench mark;
2. Through enhancing the coordination and effectiveness of the Alliance to End Child Marriage and the National Network to End FGM by engaging different actors with key expertise;
3. Through strong, accountable mechanisms for effective law enforcement;
4. And, an increase in financial resources to eliminate FGM/C and CEFM from the existing budget by 10%.

• Scaling up awareness and prevention, strengthening national institutional and legislative framework and coordinating mechanisms on ending CEFM and FGM. To be completed by the end of 2017.
• Ghana will create a Child Support Unit to ensure both parents assume full responsibility for the maintenance of their children to reduce the economic burden on single parents. This will reduce the possibility of parents giving their children up for marriage due to economic hardship.
• Ghana will host a West Africa sub-regional summit in 2015 to facilitate and strengthen coordination of regional efforts, including the adoption of a Regional Plan of Action and legal and security measures to address cross border aspects of CEFM as well as sharing of best practices.
• As the Chair of the ECOWAS Ministers for Social Development and Ministers responsible for Gender, Hon. Nana Oye Lithur, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection will ensure that CEFM and FGM/C are given priority attention on the ECOWAS gender agenda.
• Ghana is committed to providing every girl the opportunity to participate in decisions on her sexuality and to fully develop and fulfill her potential.

Transcript of speech presented by Indian High Commissioner to the UK, H.E. Mr Ranjan Mathai

From India’s perspective the prevalence of child, early, and forced marriage is a matter of serious concern and calls for even more concerted action than has been carried out so far. Strong and Comprehensive National Responses – as your programme says.

India has put in place legislation starting with the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006, has begun compulsory registration of marriages following the orders of the Supreme Court of India, and taken a number of steps at the Central Government and State Government levels for effective implementation of the legal provisions. These have included both incentives and facilities to ensure that marriages are delayed till the legal age, and demonstrative penal action against violations of the law. The median age of marriage has steadily gone up over the last 2 decades.

The origin of CEFM lies in poverty rooted traditions and has been perpetuated by lack of education and awareness. Every effort is being made to expand awareness through workshops, seminars and mass media campaigns. Also specific government schemes for empowerment of adolescent girls (education, health, vocational training). The Budget announced on 10th July had allocations of about £10 billion for women and girls.

So much govt. India’s experience shows even more rapid elimination of CEFM when poverty is tackled effectively, and education with participation in our democratic society provide the opportunities that can be life changing. Some young women in our Commonwealth Games team in Glasgow commencing tomorrow participate in sports like boxing in which a generation earlier they were invisible.

Our cultural icons and sporting heroes help spread the message for the young girls: get educated, not married, just yet.

India’s young will lead us on in accelerating the pace of change through grassroots action at the national as well as international level. We are part of a tidal movement of global change in support of girls, and India acknowledges the value of work at the UN and your initiative. We know that 250 million women voted in India’s last elections. Some 50 million would have been young women voting for the first time and they voted for change. And, they will ensure that the transformation of India will help eliminate child marriage most decisively. When you next meet for a Summit a young Indian woman will address you on progress, while I disappear.

We are strongly committed to promoting the empowerment of women and ending FGM and CEFM and we will continue to deepen our engagement with a range of partners to deliver on this commitment.

• In the knowledge that gender inequality is a root cause of FGM and CEFM, and a key aspect of the unfinished business of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), we will champion for gender equality, and the end to harmful practices including FGM and CEFM in the Post 2015 agenda.
• We will work with our partners at national, regional and global levels to accelerate action against FGM and CEFM, and will support key UN agencies, including UNICEF and UNFPA and their joint programme on FGM.
• As a member of the Irish Consortium on Gender Based Violence, we will work in coordination with Irish humanitarian, development and human rights agencies, and the Irish Defence Forces to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, including FGM, and engage in the development of the second national plan on FGM.
• With poverty and insecurity as key drivers of early, child and forced marriage, we will work with and through our government and nongovernmental partners to promote the economic empowerment of women and girls and support the implementation of appropriate and sustainable social protection programmes, focussing on the very poorest households.
• Mindful that pregnancy in adolescence, common in child marriage, and FGM are closely linked to complications during childbirth, we will support efforts that reduce maternal and infant mortality, and promote universal access to reproductive healthcare, including ante-natal care and family planning services, consistent with the Cairo Programme of Action.
• We will support girls’ education beyond primary school, cognisant that girls educated to the secondary level have been found to be less likely to marry early or to allow their daughters to be subjected to FGM.
• Within our research strategy, we will invest in research that contributes to the body of evidence on empowering women and girls, decreasing gender inequalities and reducing gender based violence, and will support research to better understand and respond to the social, economic and development challenges and opportunities faced by children and young people.

• Japan intends to implement ODA in excess of USD 3 billion over 3 years from 2013 to 2015 to realize “a society where all women shine.” Japan’s policy priorities are: women’s empowerment, women’s health care, and women, peace and security.
• In order to tackle the issues of FGM and CEFM, Japan will continue cooperating with UNICEF, UNFPA, IPPF along others, and the international community as a whole. As education empowers women and girls to take more control of their own lives, Japan will continue to provide cooperation in the field of education too.

The Government of Kenya is committed to:

• scaling up efforts to accelerate the abandonment of FGM and CEFM in partnership with Civil Society Organizations, UNICEF, UNFPA and DFID among others and together with Religious and Community leaders; particularly in areas with high prevalence.
• Kenya will continue to enhance community education and dialogue to discourage retrogressive cultural practices such as FGM and CEFM .
• Kenya Government is committed to the implementation of the Prohibition of FGM Act, 2011.

Transcript of speech given by Minister of Gender and Development,Julia Duncan – Cassell:

Liberia is appreciative of this invitation to participate in this important Summit. On behalf of President and Government, I bring you greeting and commitment to end FGM and CEFM. The issue FGM is a delicate issue in the African context, particularly amongst elements of traditional African societies.

Liberia is working frantically to end all forms of violence against women and girls, including FGM. Critical to note that ending this form of violence, like any other form of violence requires analysis of the root cause and addressing the same. In Liberia, FGM is a multi-faceted phenomenon – cultural, tradtional, economic, and social. Thus the approach taken by GoL in ending the practice is a gradual process, dialoguing with traditional leaders and practitioners of FGM. Provision of training for the traditional leaders and provision of alternative income generating activities for livelihoods sustainability.

Internationally, Liberia has ratified most of the major instruments for the protection of women’s and child’s rights and other empowerment.

Traditional practices are not all harmful but those which impact the basic rights of women and girls must end. Ending FGM means ensuring the negative implications of the practices are known by all. The traditional leaders must be consulted and be at the forefront of those advocating against this. Let me share with you, some of what we are doing in Liberia:

• We are working with the practicing communities. We held consultations with 43 traditional leaders by MoE, MoH, MoJ, MoI and MoGD.
• Social communications – communicating in different venaculars that traditional leaders can understand;
• A country wide assessment of Sande and Poro was conducted. Some of the problems that were identified during these consultations include but are not limited to: forceful initation of people, forceful initation of children without the knowledge of their parents, andinitiating adults who are non-practicising people.

We recognise that ending FGM requires work in many areas of society and service provision. The Government of Liberia has a policy on girls education and the protection of school girls through the teachers’ code of conduct. Putting the policy into practice is our own commitment. Similarly when the social protection policies are improved, there are better outcomes for girls.

The Government of Liberia is committed to ending FGM.

– Elaboration d’un nouveau plan d’action pour l’abandon de l’excision 2015-2019;

Em representação do Governo de Moçambique, nos engajamos a continuar a luta contra o casamento prematuro e forçado no país. Com base no trabalho que tem sido realizado iremos desenvolver uma estratégia multi-sectorial de prevenção e eliminação dos casamentos prematuros, cuja implementação efectiva requererá recursos financeiros e humanos, bem como colaboração com a sociedade cilvil, grupos religiosos, meios de comunicação social, parceiros internacionais, entre outros. No dia 28 de Julho lançaremos, ao mais alto nível, uma campanha nacional de sensibilização para despertar a consciência geral sobre a problemática do casamento prematuro em Moçambique.

The Government of Nepal pledges:

• To condemn and enforce child marriage not just as a social evil, but as a punishable crime with consequences for those adults responsible for perpetuating the practice;
• To work hand in hand with adolescent girls and boys in innovative ways, taking advantage of new technologies and media, to inspire a younger generation to pledge their active support towards ending child marriage in Nepal;
• To directly engage boys and men in actions to end child marriage through recognition that they are integral change-makers in the process to end child marriage, and that girls, boys, women and men are sitting at the same table as active participants in any discussion that aims to address child marriage;
• To commit to working across sectors with Government, civil society, the private sector, academia, community-based organisations and interfaith networks at the national, sub-national and grassroots levels to share evidence-based best practices of what works and what does not work to end child marriage in Nepal; and
• To celebrate successful interventions by leaders at all levels and to call upon not only Government actors, but also civil society, the private sector, academia, community-based organisations and interfaith networks to contribute the necessary resources and funding towards actions, and to demonstrate deep commitment to, ending child marriage.

Le Niger a réduit considérablement le taux de prévalence des MGF grâce à des actions mises en œuvre depuis 1998 ; ce qui a permis une réduction de plus de 50% : 5% en 1998 à 2% en 2012[1]. Mais il n’en est pas de même en ce qui concerne le mariage des enfants, précoce ou forcé, parce que les normes sociales condamnent les naissances en dehors du mariage ; c’est une question d’honneur pour la famille car une fille enceinte traduit un comportement léger de sa part et porte atteinte à l’honneur de sa famille; ce qui explique que les filles sont données en mariage très tôt – 76% des jeunes filles sont mariées avant 18 ans[2] – et toutes les catégories de familles, qu’elles soient pauvres, riches, rurales ou urbaines, le pratiquent. Pour mettre fin à cette pratique, nous nous engageons à :

• Développer et mettre en œuvre une stratégie visant à accélérer la promotion de la scolarisation et du maintien des filles à l’école -stratégie qui sera accompagnée par des actions visant à rendre effectif l’âge obligatoire de la scolarisation jusqu’à 16 ans, la poursuite et l’extension du programme d’allégement des tâches domestiques des femmes pour leur permettre de libérer les filles, et la mise en œuvre de la politique de protection sociale en faveur des populations les plus démunies ;
• Mobiliser et créer une plateforme de travail avec les leaders coutumiers et religieux pour qu’ils soient des alliés dans la promotion de l’abandon des pratiques traditionnelles néfastes à la santé et au bien-être des filles et des femmes du Niger ;
• Développer et mettre en œuvre des actions visant le renforcement des capacités des familles, des femmes, des adolescentes et adolescents pour susciter un changement de comportement et un changement des normes sociales nuisibles à l’épanouissement des femmes et des enfants, telles que les mariages des enfants et les MGF.

[1] EDSN 1998, EDSN/MICS 2012

[2] EDSN/MICS 2012 : 20-24 ans : 76.3% ; 20-49 ans : 76.9%

The Government has presented a new strategy to increase our international effort against FGM. The Norwegian government will commit to:

• Doubling the resources allocated to civil society and international organizations working internationally on the prevention of FGM;
• We will develop a new partnership with the government of Somalia to end the practice of FGM;
• Continue to be a strong supporter to the UNFPA/UNICEF Joint Programme;
• Contribute to the capacity building of health personnel within prevention and treatment of FGM;
• Strengthen our efforts on FGM as an integrated part of other relevant development priorities – such as gender equality, maternal- and child health, primary education and human rights.
• The Norwegian government will also double its contribution to education for development over the next 3 – 4 years, and education for girls will be a high priority for us. Education provides girls knowledge and power to make their own choices, and a better life.

Ending FGM, child and forced marriage is a joint responsibility. We are ready to go this way.

Continuing and strengthening Social dynamics for change towards abandonment FGM/C through the Saleema initiative, and CEFM according to the proposed national strategy for addressing CEFM which has been drafted. Theseactions will be held in light of the global Joint Programme and Girl’s Summit Charter 2014.

The Swedish government is committed to supporting the creation of preconditions for better living conditions for people living in poverty and under oppression. Female Genital Mutilation and Child, Early and Forced Marriage fall in the category of oppression.

Starting at home, FGM has been against the law in Sweden since 1982. In 1999 the loophole that allowed girls to be taken abroad to undergo FGM was outlawed. As of July 1 this year new law provi­sions strengthen the protection against forced marriage and child marriage. Two new offences have been added; the offence of coercion to marry and the offence of luring someone to travel abroad with the purpose of forcing them to enter into marriage. Previous possibilities of children being granted exemption to marry have been completely abolished. Children should be allowed to be children.

The Swedish government is currently finalising a regional results strategy to strengthen women’s and children’s health in Africa. Over the coming 5 years the government plans to put over 350 million US Dollars into the strategy.

A key area of the strategy is increased gender equality with a focus on preventing child marriage and sexual and gender based violence, including of course female genital mutilation. It is a strategy for change.

In addition, the Swedish government supports key institutions that are active in our joint work to strengthen women, boys and girls rights. During 2014 the Swedish government will contribute almost 80 million US Dollars to UNICEF and 65 million US Dollars UNFPA in core support alone.

To add momentum we will also work with UNFPA and UNICEF to iron out the details for a major Swedish contribution of up to 7 million US Dollars to support the abandonment of FGM. The Swedish contribution will be in support of accelerating change. We need to make a difference today, tomorrow and for coming generations of girls and women.

At the multilateral level, Switzerland substantially contributes to end early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation as serious forms of human rights violations through core contributions to international organizations:

UNFPA: CHF 16 million/year for 2014-16, UNICEF: CHF 22 million /year for 2014-16 and UN-Women: CHF 14 million/year for 2014

Specific multi-bi contributions to:

• UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women: CHF 4.86 million/3year (Dec. 2013 – Dec. 2016)
• Joint Health and Nutrition Program (JHNP) in Somalia”, implemented by UNICEF/WHO/UNFPA: CHF 5 million (06/2014 – 12/2016)
• Special Program of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP)” – a joint global program by WHO, UNICEF; UNFPA, UNDP, WB with FGM as one priority theme: CHF 1.2 million/year

At the bilateral level, Swiss development cooperation mainly works through its basic and non-formal education programs to address the phenomenon of early marriage challenges (about CHF 29 million/year). Research by the University of Zurich on child wellbeing and development, aimed inter alia at improving effectiveness in changing norms, also receives Swiss government support.

Implementation of the national child marriage campaign entitled Child Marriage Free Zone, to be scaled up nationally to create more awareness among duty bearers and rights-holders of the harmful nature of the practice.

The review of Law of Marriage Act will be conducted as a priority to ensure minimum age of marriage of 18.

The enforcement of the law criminalizing FGM will be strengthened through Police Gender and Children’s Desks, and through having special sessions for SGBV cases in courts.

Organisations protecting girl children from FGM and child marriage, including those providing alternative rites of passage, will be supported by the Government.

International

Political support and policy change/ strengthening:

• Raising FGM and CEFM up the political agenda. Continue to be vocal and maintaining a high level of commitment to Southern-led efforts to end these practices and to continue to evolve approaches.
• Committed to support international efforts to keep ending FGM and CEFM on the international agenda (e.g. in resolutions, statements, side-events).
• Support for Girls not Brides campaign.

Funding:

Global Programme to accelerate action to end child marriage (UNICEF, UK, Canada, Netherlands), 20m euro 2014-2017.

• Child Marriage and other forms of Violence, Abuse, Exploitation of Girls in Ghana, 4.5m euro 2014-2016.
• Child Marriages Fund for Dutch civil society (4 alliances, 12 partners), 6m euro 2014-2015.
• 15m euro 2015-2017 to be determined.
• Non-earmarked support to civil society organizations to end CEFM in various countries, funded through the Dutch‘Funding leadership and Opportunities for Women (FLOW)’ program and through the Dutch contribution to the UN Trust Fund to end Violence Against Women and Girls.

New Programming – in consultation and cooperation with our partner NGOs of the Child Marriages Fund and our embassies a new CEFM program will be developed for 2015-2017.

Existing Programming – mapping the current programs that contribute to, but that are not focused solely or primarily on ending CEFM and FGM.

Domestic

• Political support and policy change/ strengthening: A yearly national platform on forced marriage and related subjects is facilitated by the national government. Aims are to bring all organizations (professionals and NGOs) together to exchange experience and knowledge, to build a strong network and to emphasize the urgency of these themes.
• Funding: Grants are given to projects aimed at changing attitudes and behaviour in communities where there is a risk of forced marriage. Emphasis is placed on the need to recognise and respect the right to self-determination. The projects are carried out mainly by NGOs.
• New Programming: A program on the right to self-determination is currently being developed and will follow the 2011-2014 program on the prevention of forced marriages. In this new program the focus will be widened to prevention of a broad scope of forms of curtailment and denial of the right to self-determination.
• Research and Evidence: A national research on the scale and nature of forced marriages, abandonment and marital captivity is being rounded up and will be finished and available this summer.
• Existing Programming: A national program on the prevention of forced marriages is being carried out (2011-2014). Aims of this program are a mentality change in risk communities, enhancing the expertise of professionals, strengthening (local) collaboration and research.
• Communications campaigns/awareness raising: Every year a national publicity campaign about forced marriage is carried out aimed at young people. Facebook, YouTube videos, radio advertising and a website are some of the means used for this purpose. The campaign informs young people about forced marriage and where they can get help. 10/10 Int. day on the girl child: public attention is given to FGM and CEFM. 20 November – International conference on children’s rights. The issues of FGM and CEFM will be publicly addressed. Every year on the 6^th of February, the international day for the elimination of FGM, explicit attention is paid to this theme.

• Minister of Health I commit myself to ensuring that you, our children, access the healthcare you need to grow up as healthy citizens of our country. It is not right that our society should be incurring the unnecessary cost of treating girl children who become patients as a result of child marriages. I want to spend our budget on keeping our young people healthy.

Domestic Action

FGM

Punishment and enforcement

• New legislation to extend the reach of the extra-territorial offences in the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003;
• New offence of parental liability for failing to prevent FGM being carried out;
• Improved CPS and police response to FGM, including new training;
• New legislation to grant victims of FGM lifelong anonymity from the time an allegation is made.

Protection and support

• Mandatory reporting for health, educational and social work professionals in known FGM cases;
• Consultation on FGM Civil Protection Orders;
• New NHS “Safeguarding against FGM” framework;
• Improved training for NHS staff Strengthening local safeguarding arrangements and the statutory Social Work response to FGM (including pilots);
• New function on gov.uk to enable searches for FGM services in England and Wales; Improved multi-agency practice guidelines and announcement of consultation on how best to put these on a statutory footing;
• Launch FGM prevalence study to give us meaningful information for the first time; Extension of NHS data work.

Preventing FGM happening to women and girls

• New specialist FGM unit to drive nationwide outreach on FGM;
• New funding for community engagement initiatives to end FGM (additional £90k to add to the current £100k);
• Launch of faith leader’s declaration against FGM Communications campaign to raise awareness of FGM amongst professionals and practising communities, signposting the NSPCC helpline;
• Launch HMIC review into police relationships with minority communities, with a focus on FGM;
• Launch of the department of health/NHS FGM Prevention programme.

Early Forced Marriage

Punishment and enforcement: Improved Crown Prosecution Service response to forced marriage.

Protection and support: £60k additional funding for the Forced Marriage helpline run by Karma Nirvana this financial year.

Prevention: Launch of community and faith leader’s declaration against forced marriage and Forced Marriage awareness week.

FGM and EFM

• Launch of a network of community champions to tackle FGM and EFM;
• FGM and EFM guidance for schools;
• HO commitment to continue funding for wider VAWG funding at the same level as for the previous four financial years.

International Action

• Commitment of up to £25 million for a new UN multi-country programme in 12 countries to end CEFM Investment of £31 million over 8 years, focused on generating new evidence on what works to transform lives of poor adolescent girls, including addressing harmful social norms and CEFM;
• New mechanisms to be developed for civil society funding for addressing FGM and CEFM;
• On-going high level commitment to supporting the Africa-led movement to end FGM, particularly through the £35m programme announced in 2013.

Early and Forced Marriage

• Provide appropriate health care and access to education to married children and educate communities on the harmful effects of early, forced marriage.
• Study the effectiveness of programs to delay marriage in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Burkina Faso and share solutions with other regions impacted by the practice.
• Evaluate the impact of programs in Haryana, India that provide financial incentives to families who keep their girls in school. The program has reached 3,000 girls at risk for early, forced marriage.
• Launch a new program in Nepal to educate students, teachers, and community leaders on the importance of delaying marriage and keeping girls safe, both at home and in school.
• Develop new programs in Yemen and Bangladesh to help communities advocate for laws banning the practice of early, forced marriage.
• Launch a new program in Benin targeting approximately 100,000 beneficiaries to (i) raise community awareness of the harmful effects of early and forced marriage and the law prohibiting forced marriage and (ii) establish “one-stop” GBV care centers to provide medical, legal, psychosocial, and economic support to survivors of GBV, including married children.
• Promote Let Girls Learn, a global social media campaign raising awareness on the importance of investing in girls and their education.

FGM

Domestic:

• Produce a new report estimating the number of girls at risk for or who have already undergone FGM/C in the United States;
• Provide information on FGM/C to educators and immigrant and refugee service provider organizations in communities throughout the United States with large populations of girls at risk;
• Strengthen awareness and training for healthcare providers serving girls and women at risk for or living with the consequences of FGM/C, and disseminate information to clinicians in community health centers;
• Establish an information and resources depository with links to health/legal providers, to inform women and girls of their rights and provide options for those seeking help;
• Develop and disseminate a newsletter to U.S. Attorney’s Offices setting forth guidance regarding investigations and prosecutions using the FGM/C statute.

International:

• Explore research opportunities to learn how to better support and treat girls and women living with the consequences of FGM/C;
• Ensure that U.S. embassies in relevant countries have updated information on FGM/C to share with travellers and those seeking to immigrate to the United States;
• Launch a new program in partnership with the Government of Guinea, multilateral and civil society actors to address this issue in high FGM/C prevalence areas, impacting up to 65,000 girls through community awareness and capacity- building;
• Support the Nairobi Centre of Excellence in Kenya to improve health care for girls and women suffering from the negative consequences of FGM/C and work in close partnership with indigenous groups at the community level to promote broader education and dissemination of information on the harmful effects of FGM/C;
• Engage in outreach efforts to reduce demand of FGM/C, including supporting Zero Tolerance Day events and updating data on prevalence and best practices;
• Foster constructive legal and policy frameworks by supporting host country legislation against the practice of FGM/C;
• Participate in the FGM/C Donors Working Group to discuss donor coordination, lessons learned, and best practices to eliminate FGM.

• Commitment to prioritze attention to pursue abandonment of FGM/C and address child marriages in National Development Plan 2 (NDP2) and the Social Development Sector Plan.
• Commitment to prioritze attention to pursue abandonment of FGM/C and address child marriages in NDP2 and the Social Development Sector Plan; Integration of FGM abandonment activities in the District Development Plans
• Formulation of Sector Development Plan with priorities on FGM/C and child marriage
• Mobilisation of domestic resources – To bring FGM and CEFM on the list of key priorities in the Social Development Sector; and to adequately fund the sector to respond to them. Currently, the SDS receives less than 1% of the national budget.
• Improved coordination and documentation of the national response on FGM and Child marriages.
• Improved effectiveness of district probation and child welfare departments.
• National campaign to reduce teenage pregnancy. Work to tackle social norms.
• Improved disaggregated data in sector management Information system to correlate drop out to FGM and CEFM for stepping up targeted efforts in the sector. Increasingly mainstream issues in all subsector plans and budgets with increased public spending to improve quality and to implement policies and programmes to the learners. Policy on re entry of child mothers and retention of young pregnant girls in school or education institutions (skilling Uganda).
• An information magement system for FGM and Child Marriages managed by MGLSD to improve national planning.
• An enabling environment for civil society advocacy on FGM and EFCM.

We support fixing the minimum age of marriage in Law and pledge to end all forms of violence against girls.

To convince my government to take the issue of FGM seriously and start awareness programmes to end it.

At HACEP-Ghana, we are committed to providing safe and inclusive community spaces where girls and women can develop and raise their voices. We will achieve this by ensuring that:

• We identify the critical factors that deny hundreds of girls and women in Ghana their human rights and gender equality with a particular focus on FGM, CEFM and other violence against girls and women’s, empowerment, economic, and social rights and the right to participation whiles designing grassroots community interventions to combat them.
• Identify good practices utilizing young people’s mandates to promote and protect girls and women’s rights and equality. Identify the needs (in terms of capacity building/experience sharing) of young people in the area of girls and women’s human rights and gender equality.
• We host a northern Ghana summit on girls left behind in December, 2014 and take a lead role in organizing a West African regional conference.
• We develop strategic partnerships with UN Agencies such as UN Women, UNDP, UNICEF, OHCHR and UNFPA to strengthen cooperation and capacities of young people and CSOs to more effectively promote and protect girls and women’s rights.

• Supporting survivors and those at risk of FGM through training, counselling and referrals.
• Engaging Imams and Pastors and other religious leaders to show that FGM is not encouraged by religion.
• Advocating for the rights of FGM victims.
• Campaigning for the provision of FGM services by Hackney Council.
• Petition to the African Union (AU) for an FGM Charter and condemnation of FGM by all African leaders.
• Production of video documentary on FGM.

• Advance knowledge about FGM in Kurdistan region of Iraq
• Eradicate FGM in Kurdistan by 2020
• Advocate the implementation of laws that are already passed in Kurdistan
• Monitor and prevent FGM inside health institutions
• Prevent and combat the medicalization of FGM.
• Help change harmful knowledge, attitude and practices concerning FGM

I pledge to continue campaigning until training on FGM and CEFM is in all schools and there are services for survivors around the country.

Sensitization of women and girls through structured visits in schools and homes, and discussions surrounding the effects of FGM and women’s health related issues. Empowerment of women and girls through education on their rights in the society.

We commit to work closely on campaigns to end child marriage, teen pregnancy, and in supporting girls’ education and empowerment

Le renforcement ou la création d’un pont entre le CIAF et les autres organisations nationales et internationales.

• The International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers is a worldwide association of practising lawyers who are recognised by their peers as the most experienced and skilled family law specialists in their respective countries.
• The IAML pledges to educate and inform legal professionals and the judiciary worldwide onthe issues relating to Forced Marriage, early child Forced Marriage, Honour Based Violence and FGM/Cutting.
• The IAML commits to keep the issues on its agenda at its annual general meetings and to provide training to lawyers and other stakeholders.
• The IAML continues its supportthe major NGOs worldwide and in particular the Tahirih Justice Center in the USA.
• The IAML will focus on victim focused remedies in all jurisdictions through the following initiatives:-

We recommit ourselves to a world free of child, early and forced marriage and FGM/C. We pledge to undertake a multi-year (2014-2017), multi-country effort to document the economic costs of child marriage around the globe. Further, we pledge to leverage this valuable evidence through targeted, international and national-level advocacy that will augment the growing global movement by proving to policymakers, for the first time, the economic case as to why they must invest, right now, to end this practice. We will undertake this and other advocacy related to ending CEFM and FGM/C both in our institutional capacity and in collaboration with our national and international partners within and beyond the Girls Not Brides movement.

Researching, preparing and publishing a report on child, early and forced marriages in Turkey. Awareness raising activities.

We will champion for the rights of the girl child to freedom from violence including child, early and forced marriage and FGM, to enjoy a life of dignity, to enjoy good health and quality education in Turkey and everywhere in the world.

The ICRAA will develop programmes for poorly educated girls wholive in rural areas of Afghanistan. The ICRAA will also improve the situation of girls in Afghanistan, particularly forced marriages and the denialof education.

• The IRC will share its learning and research results from its adolescent girl protection and empowerment programmes and research, especially in fragile settings
• IRC pilot programme on Girl Empower in Ethiopia and Liberia will be concluded by 2017, learning will be shared upon conclusion.
• IRC COMPASS programme in Ethiopia, DRC and Pakistan will conclude in May 2017. Research results are expected to be shared by early 2017.
• IRC will share the results of its Girls Empowered through Microfinance (GEM) impact evaluation in early 2015 and its Sisters of Success (SoS) impact evaluation in 2017.
• IRC will reach over 16,000 girls with its combined programmes over a period of four years.

International Women’s Health Coalition advances the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of women and young people, particularly adolescent girls, around the world. Ending child, early and forced marriage and supporting girls who are already married is a critical piece of this work. IWHC commits to helping achieve a world free from child, early and forced marriage by:

• Working with governments to ensure that ending child, early and forced marriage by 2030 is a target of the post-2015 development agenda;
• Working with governments to develop and implement a resolution on ending child, early and forced marriage during the 69th United Nations General Assembly;
• Working with partners to ensure global, local, and US foreign policy addresses the issue through multi-sectoral approaches that focus on empowering all girls to achieve their full potential and realize their human rights, including sexual and reproductive health and rights;
• Supporting partner organizations and leaders working to end the practice in countries of high prevalence; and
• Raising the profile of the issue around the world with governments, partners, and individuals of the public.

Through our Girls Group we, the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Right Organisation (IKWRO) commit to developing young female leaders from Middle Eastern and North African communities as forces for change.

To raise awareness on the Bangladesh Government commitment at girl summit 2014 among the stakeholders (October-November 2014)

We will be committed to working with front-line practitioners, young people, the community and perpetrators in order to raise awareness, educate and prevent forced marriages. We will also continue to provide holistic support to victims. Ending CEFM and FGM must be a global priority.

As an intern of GAMCOTRAP and member of GAMCOTRAP youth advocacy group (GAMYAG), I plan to raise awareness amongst my fellow young people in order to share my experience and knowledge on Female Genital mutilation, Child, early and force marriage as well as other issues that are hindering the development of girls. I am also in youth groups where some people have no idea about these harmful issues and they need to be enlightened about the fact that girls are vulnerable too.

Engaging with 50 schools across the UK to raise awareness and understanding about early marriage amongst educators and safeguarding teams, implementing governments forced marriage guidance.

I will work with community TV and radio to raise theissues.

As a Humanitarian, an Activist and a Mentor to the girls who have undergone FGM and who haven’t,I will stand up to fight for the rights of these innocent girls within the Maasai community, train them in school and be in the front line to End FGM and retention of girls in schools within my reach.

TheLilyemen team hasalready conducted workshops on CEFM and FGMwith the Yemeni community in Sheffield, and are hoping to go to Liverpool, Birmingham and Cardiff next.

I pledge to continue to campaign for decent funding from Scottish authorities for those trying to stop FGM; and to establish a Scottish event, before the end of 2014, bringing together campaign groups and people in authority to step up efforts to end forced marriage in Scotland.

All women have the right to live free of the abuse of FGM and forced marriage. My name is Lubna Maktari, I am a British Yemeni committed to helping British women understand their rights. I’ve organised the ‘Dolls for Child Brides’ Campaign which is expanding from London to other parts of the UK. We run workshops to engage women from susceptible or vulnerable communities to take part in a movement against FGM and enforced marriage and to empower them to make a stand against this abuse of women and children’s rights.

Based on its earlier work and experiences on the issue of child and forced marriage, MAMTA-HIMC strongly supports the approaches that enhances self-efficacy of adolescent girls and boys; which are ‘gender transformative’ in nature and works simultaneously with both girls and boys; works towards making social/community norms gender equitable; and those that are founded in the safe space concept (again for both girls and boys) to provide an opportunity for meaningful engagement to girls and boys in marginalized communities. MAMTA-HIMC as always will continue to work with most marginalized population.

Organization in future aims to take on interventions based on these approaches while building robust evidences for each to support its scale up. Besides, organization will work towards strengthening system’s response to the issue by prioritizing the issue in the national, state and district agendas/plan of action.

MAMTA-Health Institute for Mother and Child, New Delhi, India, commits to the cause of ending Female Genital Mutilation and Child and Forced Marriages with focused work in South Asia. We believe in and support approaches that promote gender equitable norms and are gender transformative in nature. Gender, Sexuality and Rights are the crosscutting issues in our interventions with young men and women.

MAMTA-HIMC will continue working with local, national and international bodies especially at South Asia level to strengthen policies and actions on protecting and promoting the interest of the girl child. System’s strengthening and bringing multi-sectoral efforts to the cause along with community led actions will be the priority.

MAMTA-HIMC will intensively work to keep the issue high on national, state and district agenda while networking with other NGOs, CSOs, institutions and corporates and building their capacities to undertake actions to end such practices.

I will take a personal initiative to fight with passion the vice of CEFM in my country Uganda.

Ongoing coverage supporting the cause across marieclaire.co.uk and Marie Claire UK magazine throughout 2014/15.

Ongoing support on the website and magazine – and specifically web and social coverage surrounding the Girl Summit.

To use various culturally appropriate communication strategies to create awareness on the health effects of FGM and CEFM. These channels will include beneficiaries initiating songs, integrating subject matter into training sessions, dialogue with community members, as well as lobby policy makers to take a positive stance on the issues. While the focus is on girls who will lead the change process, other target groups should be trained to also advocate on their behalf.

I will communicate with my schoolmates about CEFM, and become an active member of the human rights club. But mostly SPEAK FOR THOSE WHO CAN’T SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

By 2016 we will have supported at least 15,000 girls at risk of early marriage, to stay at school.

I commit to follow up the Summit in my country in order to end child marriage by working with traditional leaders, girls, boys and media.

We will campaign to reform the custom of bride price to remove the unacceptable elements that lead to violence and abuse including the risk of child marriages.

We will lobby for changes in legislation, policy and practice to remove the demand for payment and refund of bride price as a condition precedent to a valid marriage or its dissolution.

Write in-depth stories on effects of FGM & CEFM as a means to sensitize members of the public.

We are going to train 4000 girls on sexual reproductive health and rights issues and we will train 500 girls as leaders in their community.

As a Youth Leader in my community I will challenge FGM, Early & Forced marriage and other Harmful Practices through dialogue with community members

I will help organisefaith leadersin Sudan to commit to stopping FGM within their generation.

“Children are the ornaments of the home. A home without children is like a home without light”

Equality of Girls and Boys to be adorned with full of divine virtues. “Virtue is the muscle tone that develops from hourly training of spiritual warrior”

Priorities in education must be given to the girls in case there are more boys and the family cannot afford equally to all. Because girls will be the first educator.

Actions:

1. Run several children moral classes for children and junior youths.

2. Prepare volunteer teachers for the conducting of these classes.

3. Meet parents periodically, to updates children activities.

4. Involve religious leaders to address the children moral classes.

5. Involve children and junior youth to reduce the social harmful practices

1. I shall complete and submit for publication, a short series of articles on FGM/C and male circumcision by 16th October 2015.

2. As part of my research, in respect of the above, I shall correspond with the Islamic Sharia Council, the Muslim College and the Muslim Council of Britain to understand better their respective positions and actions in relation to FGM/C. I shall do this leading up to 16th October 2015 and I shall keep this action under review thereafter, depending on responses.

3. In the event that the above articles are published, I shall send copies to key parliamentarians and journalists. I shall do this as soon as is reasonably practicable upon publication of each article.

4. I shall sign up for the FGM/C e-bulletin referred to within the online Government literature. I shall do this by 28th August 2015.

5. I shall encourage friends and colleagues to find out more about FGM/C, with particular reference to the work of UNICEF and Girl Summit. As part of this, I shall encourage them to sign up the Charter and submit their own commitments. I shall embark on this with immediate effect and maintain my efforts on an ongoing basis.

The Office of the Children’s Commissioner is committed to addressing forced marriage in our Child Sexual Abuse Inquiry, the objective of which is to end forced marriage in England. The deadline for this work is 2016.

The Gender Equality Strategy 2006-2016 commits to promoting and protecting the rights of girls and boys and to eliminating gender based violence in society. We will take the following actions to eradicate Female Genital Mutilation and Child, Early and Forced Marriage in our society:

– Recognise that domestic and sexual violence and abuse can manifest itself through the perpetration of unlawful activities and practices such as forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

– Publish Multi-Agency Practice Guidelines on Female Genital Mutilation.

– Develop a provision to criminalise forced marriage.

The Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict will work with national governments, including heads of states, the judiciary, security forces, law-makers, as well as with civil society, religious and community leaders, women’s groups, youth activists, and survivors to bring an end to conflict-related forced marriage through our ongoing advocacy and capacity building efforts.

Appeal on behalf of all girl-children of The Gambia who are vulnerable to Female Genital Mutilation and Early Marriage.

We will call on our parents, communities and government to protect us from Female Genital Mutilation and early marriage.

• Use our Learning about Living programme to reach out to young people across West Africa to raise awareness and to engage in advocacy to end female genital mutilation and child, early and forced marriage.
• Implement sexual and reproductive health and rights empowerment programmes for girls in-and out-of-school in West Africa and young boys too so they grow up with the right mindset about girls.
• Support the work of other organisation in advocacy to end female genital mutilation and child, early and forced marriage, through developing cutting-edge technological solution.

These commitments will be fulfilled by 2020.

Options will integrate responses to FGM into our current and future programmes on sexual and reproductive health, and maternal, neonatal and child health.

Orchid Project will continue to work for a world free from female genital cutting: raising awareness about the scale and impact of FGC, communicating how it is ending and partnering to accelerate abandonment of the practice. Orchid Project will enhance communications and advocacy work on FGC in the Middle East and Asia to bring international attention to the issue of FGC outside of Africa.

The OECD will work with member countries and partner governments in developing countries to contribute to the elimination of all norms and practices which discriminate against and violate the rights of women and girls, such as FGM and early and forced marriage. We will do this by providing a solid evidence base, notably by strengthening our measurements of discriminatory norms and practices and tracking donor financing in support of gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights.

Petition and a pledge signed during a conference organised by Nusrat High School.

We will further integrate work on sexual and reproductive health rights within our My Rights My Voice programme, highlighting female genital mutilation (FGM) and child, early and forced marriage (CEFM), by increasing levels of rights awareness amongst youth and duty bearers and through our support to safe spaces for young people to discuss these issues with peers and allies.

We will build on our existing work at country level in this area. In Yemen, Oxfam is working with local women’s organisations who continue to push for protection against CEFM in the constitution and in personal status law. In Yemen we will also continue to work with local women’s organisations to raise public awareness of the negative social and developmental impacts of CEFM. In the Philippines, through our support to national organisations, Oxfam will continue to work with local communities to address CEFM.

We will share best practice on addressing CEFM and FGM in the new Oxfam knowledge hub on Violence Against Women.

Addressing the broader gender injustice and inequality, which drives CEFM and FGM, is a key part of Oxfam’s work. For example, in Myanmar, Oxfam will continue to work with women’s networks to influence the drafting of the Ending Violence Against Women law, and will work to raise awareness on – and challenge – the structural inequalities facing women and girls. Oxfam has included the advancement of women’s rights as foundational within its new Strategic Plan, and committed to the first confederation-wide Roadmap on how to do this, including within our broader programmes and influencing work. This will be implemented over the next 6 years, with timebound commitments agreed for 2014-2016.

We will continue to call for a strong stand-alone gender equality goal in the post-2015 framework and ensure this addresses violence against women and girls, including CEFM marriage and FGM, as a priority in Oxfam’s advocacy work.

I will talk about girl child issues in discussions with colleagues. I will also publish an article on research on girl child issues.

• We are committed to prioritising our programming and advocacy on both Child Marriage and FGM/C;
• Between now and 2020 we are seeking funding for 27.3 million Euro for Child, Early and Forced Marriage programming for girls most vulnerable across Asia and Africa;
• Between now and 2020 we are seeking to substantively increase our funding for FGM programming;
• We will continue our advocacy and campaigning on child marriage, FGM/C and girls’ education, including through our ‘Because I am a Girl’ campaign.

• Ensure 23,882 girls at risk of CEFM in Zambia and Mozambique are empowered to determine their own future.
• Increase the # of CEFM/FGM free villages in Mali from 45 to 60 in the year 2015.
• Make use of International Day of the Girl to lobby on national level in 10 Plan Programme Countries for eradication of FGM and CEFM.

The Population Council commits to:

• identifying and articulating new, effective approaches to preventing child marriage, FGM, and other forms of gender-based violence;
• conducting rigorous research to generate the high-quality evidence needed to shape strategies that are cost-effective and powerful;
• working to ensure the effective use of our evidence by decision makers in governments and civil society organizations to improve policies and programs.
• helping girls, families, and communities to abandon the practices of child marriage and FGM and to adopt values, norms, and practices that promote girls’ health, safety, and wellbeing;
• conducting research in at least seven countries, involving at least 50,000 girls by 2016 to support this commitment.

I will continue to be the voice of survivors and I will continue to raise awareness on the issues of FGM that blighted my life. That passion has now led me to start an organisation called ProjectACEi. As a founder and a survivor I make the following commitments:

Work to expedite law on child, early and forced marriage in Punjab, Pakistan.

• Develop a concept on Kick FGM/C and Child Marriage Football and Netball Tournament 2015.
• Hold talk shows on FGM/C and Child Marriageon local radio.
• Use the ‘grandmother approach’ to reach and involve the old women in achieving the desired change.
• Hold traditional music competitions with a target theme.
• Do outreach torally villages, schools and market places using participatory theatre and brass band.

• Tanzania: Mabinti Tushike Hatamu! (Girls Let’s be Leaders!) Restless Development Tanzania is partnering up with UNICEF and the Tanzania Commission for AIDS on an award-winning programme which is reducing the vulnerability of adolescent girls aged 10-19 to HIV and AIDS, early pregnancy and gender-based violence.
• Sierra Leone: Teenage Mothers Clubs In Sierra Leone, 41% of girls have begun child-bearing between the age of 12 – 14. For many young girls, once they fall pregnant they are no longer allowed to attend school leaving them highly dependent and vulnerable. They also struggle to access health services and become economically dependent. To address this issue, we have established Teenage Mothers Clubs which consist of young mothers and pregnant adolescents aged 12-17 years old.
• Zambia: Tackling early marriage and teenage pregnancy In the Western Province in Zambia, we are responding to the high rates of early marriage and teenage pregnancy through community-based awareness creation and education. This programme is empowering 5,000 young people to make safe choices regarding their sexual and reproductive health and rights as well as economic and social well-being. This is resulting in reduced vulnerability to STIs, HIV, teenage pregnancy and early marriage for young women. We are improving community leaders attitudes to girls’ rights and encouraging them to take action to build a protective environment where adolescent girls are valued.

I pledge to bring awareness through education at all levels and to all ages. I hope to be an open and courageous activist against FGM and forced/early marriages and will include that point in every sermon I give.

• We commit to raising awareness of the Summit and the Charter with our 11,500 members – both in the UK and internationally. And encouraging our international members to hold their governments to account on their commitments.
• We commit to continuing our intercollegiate work helping to identify and clarify the role that medical professionals and Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in particular can play in ending FGM in a generation.

1.Following the Girl Summit, the RCS commits to continue to work to raise awareness in Commonwealth countries about the need to end child and forced marriage; to advocate to end child and forced marriage at key international meetings; and to facilitate shared learning within the Commonwealth on what works to end child and forced marriage

2.The RCS commits to framing the issues of child and forced marriage, and female genital mutilation / cutting, within the broader context of gender inequality in our research and advocacy work

3.The RCS commits to work with young people to facilitate greater action within youth networks to raise awareness of and challenge gender inequality, including child and forced marriage, female genital mutilation / cutting, and perceptions of masculinity and femininity

4.To enable this work, the RCS has dedicated further resources and funding to this area of our work over the next two years, with the support of the Government of Canada.

Work with girls in and out of school to spread the word that CEFM is anti-development and has to stop.

I commit to challenging those who justify FGM and CEFM in the name of religion. Fight root cause – gender inequality.

I pledge to go home and spread as much awareness about the issue as I can! “We will break the silence”

• Mobilize the wider Save the Children movement’s resources to make the elimination of VAWG a key pillar of the organisation’s work
• Recruit key development and humanitarian staff to strengthen our response to VAWG with special emphasis on developing and piloting age-appropriate interventions for girls and boys
• Work to build stronger child protection systems in high prevalence countries which can respond to all forms of violence and abuse.
• Conduct vigorous advocacy to ensure commitment to the elimination of FGM and CEF are firmly embedded in the Post-2015 framework under a gender equality goal as well as ensuring that a target of eliminating all violence against children is integrated across the framework. is a priority element of the Post-2015 framework
• With a focus on child and adolescent centred programming, scale up programmes and learning on VAWG with a focus on holistic responses, sexual and reproductive health services, and the clinical management of rape across the Save the Children movement.

Savera is already dedicated to tackling domestic abuse and one of its mean focus is tackling forced marriage and FGM within Merseyside and beyond.

To set up a Short Life Working Group to ensure a multi-agency approach in Scotland to tackling FGM that is able to meet the needs of victims, professionals, support agencies and organisations (including staff who work for them), and communities, in the elimination of the practice of FGM.

We will review what we are currently doing in Scotland across different sectors in Scotland to tackle FGM and identify what more needs to be done in the elimination of the practice of FGM.

The Scottish Government is committed to eradicating Forced Marriage and from 30 September 2014 forcing a person into marriage will be a criminal offence punishable by up to 7 years in prison.

More information and education campaigns to raise awareness to the girl child and parents together with guardians that the girl child has more potential in life than just getting married.

I will design a communication campaign in the community in which l live and work with the local media to spread the word to all corners of my country Zimbabwe

Campaign for my Gender Equality Act 2014 to improve the lives of women throughout the world & to end FGM and CEFM.

SAIEVAC will work with member states in SAARC

Within my mandate as global independent advocate against all forms of violence against children, I shall continue to give priority to the prevention and abandonment of child and forced marriage and of female genital mutilation. Building upon the research I have undertaken on children’s protection from harmful practices, I shall continue to promote advocacy and policy dialogue to assist States in the steps they need to take to fulfill their commitments. Acting as a bridge builder, I shall foster cooperation amongst the various stakeholders, mobilize and offer my support to governments, national institutions, ombuds offices, child-led and other civil society organisations, academia as well as to community and religious leaders to advance this agenda. I shall also invest in awareness raising, creating and using opportunities to convey the key messages of the Summit and maintain its momentum. I shall continue to advocate for the inclusion of violence against children in the post-2015 agenda as a distinct priority concern.

Collaboration to launch a global girls awards initiative, investing at least $1 million in grassroots organisations working with and for girls, including girl-led organisations, aiming to:

• Encourage, support and recognise effective practice amongst grassroots organisations working with and for girls to change and overcome discriminatory social norms such as early and forced marriage, female genital cutting, forced labour, human trafficking, etc.
• Mobilise resources to support the work of effective grassroots organisations working to create a more just reality where girls’ rights and well-being are recognized, respected and realised.
• Highlight the essential role that local organisations can and must play to support the rights, well-being, and empowerment of girls facing systematic injustices in their lives.
• Bring together learning and understanding on the effectiveness of the role of local organisations to bring about lasting change with and for girls.
• Keep attention on the commitments made by governments and other organisations at international conferences and events to address these important issues (while highlighting great practice and progress at a community level).

I will kickstart awareness of child marriage and FGM at my firm and see to it that a Trust Law event will be held to put these issues on the pro bono agenda.

10 awareness theatre plays on the child and forced marriages.

• We have invested £1.6 million in grass-roots FGM prevention work in England and Wales for the period 2013 – 2016 through Phase II of the Tackling FGM Initiative. We will continue to support our grantees to ensure they achieve the best possible outcomes through our investment.
• We have commissioned Options UK consultancy to externally evaluate the impact of the Tackling FGM Initiative. We commit to sharing the learning from the external evaluation with other funders, grass-roots organisations and policy makers.
• We commit to supporting policy makers with developing appropriate strategies to end FGM in the UK by providing consultancy and communicating knowledge from the ground.
• We commit to facilitate networking, information sharing, joint working and learning between our grantees and all organisations working to end FGM in the UK.
• We commit to supporting Diaspora communities with leveraging change overseas by working closely with the End FGM/C Social Change campaign.

• By March 2015, outline key commitments to end FGMC within Tearfund Sexual Violence strategy;
• By March 2018, build a strong faith response committed to ending FGMC across 3 countries in Sub Saharan Africa;
• By 2018, mentor and accompany at least 6 survivors to become Champions, influencing policy and actions.

A renewed focus on the importance of girls and the emancipation of girls, including the protection of girls from forced, early and child marriage (FECM) and female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), in The Wellbeing Foundation’s advocacy, communications, and policy reviews, in both fields of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) and ending domestic violence (EDV).

Carry out school campaigns for awareness in Nigeria and also use the skills of a social documentary photographer for advocacy. By 31 March 2015.

Tostan commits to:

• Fully supporting the Government of Senegal’s established goal of total abandonment of Female Genital Cutting in Senegal by 2017 through implementation of the Community Empowerment Program, community-led outreach activities and public declarations for the abandonment of FGC and child marriage.
• Further growing the movement for the abandonment of FGC and child marriage in The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, and Mauritania, as a part of our recently launched Generational Change in Three Years campaign, and our other initiatives across West Africa.
• Developing our innovative Youth for Human Rights program, which will engage youth at the forefront of the movement to end FGC and child marriage. We plan to reach hundreds of thousands of youth in the next five years.
• Contributing to the international effort to measuring the abandonment of FGC and child marriage with appropriate tools that take into account the nature of FGC and child marriage as social norms andare carefully grounded in community understandings of the practices.We will also continue rigorous evaluations of our programs and how community-led efforts are contributing to the abandonment of FGC and child marriage over time.
• Reinforcing the global effort to end these practices by sharing information on content, methodology and strategy for changing social norms at the Tostan Training Center located in Thiès, Senegal.

• To advocate for the passage of the Children’s Act.
• Encourage government to fast track the formulation of the birth and death registration policy- This will establish a robust birth and death registration system since birth registration is key in child protection as it determines age and helps hold perpetrators and accomplices accountable.
• Lobby Central government and Local governments to provide necessary budgetary resources- This will improve child protection work in terms of creating community awareness, coordinating and strengthening child protection structures to adequately facilitate law enforcement agencies like probation office, police, and courts to improve their effectiveness.
• Lobby Ministry of Gender, Labour and social development to develop a comprehensive child protection strategy, together with increased budget allocations. This is to guide interventions at all levels and will make a significant difference.
• Stop Violence Against Children in and around schools. Corporal punishments are widely accepted and yet the harm our children. As a Forum we know that there are better effective approaches to child discipline as it is also against the Ministry of Education Policy.

Advocacy to stop FGM, Community sensitisation on the dangers of FGM and CEFM and Counselling affected communities.

I’m influencing analysis and design of NGO development programs and research to address child marriage through all sectors including health, education, and child protection in Bangladesh. Iwill join networks like Girls not Brides and summits like Girl Summit in upcoming events. At a personal level, I shall protest against any occurrence of child marriage and its factors like social insecurity, dowry.

We, the United Nations Development Programme, support the efforts of national partners to develop and implement the required legal and policy frameworks to combat all forms of sexual and gender-based violence. We use our convening power as the UN’s lead development organization to advocate for gender equality, women’s empowerment and the rights of women and girls, including through public awareness and community mobilization campaigns on the prevention of and response to sexual and gender-based violence. Addressing FGM and child early and forced marriage are integral aspects of this work. Eliminating FGM and CEFM are vital to the achievement of gender equality and human development.

UNESCO will work with governments, non-governmental and civil society groups, community leaders and parents to keep and bring back girls to school through secondary by intensifying high-level policy advocacy and dialogues; reinforcing normative and standard-setting actions; and increasing provision of technical assistance to Member States to promote gender-responsive and gender transformative teacher training and practices, to develop curricula, textbooks and media contents that combat stereotypes and to equip them with the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to take full charge of their social, economic and political lives.

In line with its 2014-2017 Strategic Plan[1], UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is committed to ending the harmful practices of Child, Early and Forced Marriage and Female Genital Mutilation. We join hands with governments, civil society, the private sector, and other constituencies to:

1. Support the design and implementation of comprehensive programmes to reach adolescent girls at risk of child marriage in at least 12 high prevalence countries[2]by 2017. We reaffirm UNFPA’s commitment to allocate US$20 million to building the health, social and economic assets of marginalized adolescent girls.
2. Intensify UNFPA’s support to regional and national efforts in protecting 4 million girls from Female Genital Mutilation, and providing sexual and reproductive health care to those living with its consequences, by 2020 in at least 17 countries[3]. We reaffirm UNFPA’s commitment to work with partners to end FGM in one generation.

UNFPA strives to ensure the sexual and reproductive health and rights of everyone, and is unequivocally dedicated to promoting and protecting the rights, and well-being of girls everywhere.

UNICEF will work with national governments and other partners to end FGM/C and child marriage by:

Getting girls into school, and keeping them there, by:

• Implementing social protection programmes that incentivize girl’s schooling and later marriages through cash transfers.
• Expanding education for girls, and improving learning outcomes for the most marginalized girls, up to secondary school.
• Supporting menstrual hygiene management and the provision of adequate water and sanitation facilities to encourage girls’ school attendance.
• Addressing school-related gender based violence, including through teacher training, information and life-skills for girls, and confidential help lines.

Helping mobilize action by young people, families, communities, and civil society groups to end FGM/C and child marriage by:

• Using mass communication and social mobilization to raise awareness and underline the urgency of abandoning harmful social practices affecting girls and women. This would include TV and radio stations that reach millions of people and engaging with local partners on door-to-door advocacy with households.
• Using social media and other communication tools to elevate the voices of girls themselves and engage men and boys to bring about change. The U-Report – an SMS based platform being used by adolescents to discuss and report child marriage and FGM/C cases is one example.
• Supporting and promoting public declarations amongst both individuals and communities on their commitments to end FGM/C and child marriage.

Investing in programmes and services that address FGM/C and child marriage, by:

• Increasing access to health and nutrition services for girls and women married as children or subjected to FGM/C. This includes investing in decentralized health units and engaging community health workers who are equipped with the needed skills and support.
• Strengthening local child protection systems, for instance through community committees that address threats of FGM/C or child marriage, resolve them or refer the cases to district authorities.

Generating and using data to break the silence, track progress and inform action, by:

• Tracking the percentage as well as the number of girls and women married as children or experiencing FGM/C, within and across countries.
• Developing indicators to track progress in changes in public attitudes about FGM/C, child marriage and gender equality.
• Accelerating the registration of births and marriages, including through the use of modern technology like free SMS based communication.

Together for ending child marriage and FGM in Sudan

We will work to empower girls through education, changing negative community concepts, providing child protection from FGM and child marriage, and advocacy to change personal status law in accordance with international conventions.

Vital Voices commits to utilizing the Gender-Based Violence Response Initiative to provide emergency assistance to survivors of extreme forms of gender based violence and harmful tradition al practices, specifically including forced/early marriage and female genital mutilation/cutting. Funding can be provided to survivors for expenses that include, but are not limited to, medical expenses, psychosocial support or counselling, emergency shelter or other safe accommodation, relocation expenses, livelihood and dependent support (including foster care and other forms of child care), and legal assistance. By September 30, 2015, the GBV Response Initiative aims to support at least 50 survivors through this program.

Beginning with the pioneering advocacy advanced by the Fund’s co-founder, Gordon Wallace, the Wallace Global Fund is deeply committed to promoting the global abandonment of FGM/C. Through its grantmaking and convenings, the Fund will accelerate its efforts to elevate FGM/C on the U.S. and global policy agendas, catalyze grassroots action, galvanize media attention, empower FGM/C advocates and survivors, and mobilize resources in support of community-led processes of social change.

The Fund co-founded the Donors Working Group on FGM/C and will continue to regularly convene FGM/C donors, researchers, and advocates in Washington, DC.

• Delivering a Survivor Care Pathway for Wales;
• Launching the National Training Framework;
• Raising Community Awareness through a range of publicity, social media and other communications tools.

Strengthening the voice and rights of women and girls in WLSA countries to contribute to the effective fight against FGM and CEFM. The activities are designed to create opportunities for girls and women to participate in and influence households, communities and national decisions. Women and girls will have a proper understanding of their rights and access to means of enforcing these rights so that they can challenge these unjust legal and cultural policies and practices.

• Increased access to accurate information and justice for women and girls in WLSA countries;
• Increased public discourse and debate on national policies, laws and end FGM and CEFM;
• Increased capacity building for WLSA to effectively manage and implement its programmes.

These actions will be completed by 2017.

Women Deliver will enhance its advocacy for an end to FGM and CEFM, and for broader investments in the health, rights, and well-being of girls and women. We commit to:

• Support at least two seed grants for Women Deliver Young Leaders to implement projects in their communities to end CEFM.
• Organize sessions at the global Women Deliver 2016 conference (May 2016) focusing on solutions and best practices for ending FGM and CEFM, driving commitments to such
• Include and enhance advocacy and messaging around CEFM, in particular in relation to young people’s needs and key barriers to fulfilling their potential.

We will:
1. Coordinate and carry out research to enhance evidence-base for efforts to prevent and address the health consequences of child marriage and FGM/C. In doing so, strengthen research capacity in low resource settings and facilitate and South-South and North-South collaboration (mainly through WHO FGM/C research network.
2. Support the implementation of the WHO recommendations on prevention of early marriage and addressing adverse health outcomes.
3. Develop policy and programmatic guidelines to manage adverse health consequences of FGM/C and improve the care for women and girls living with FGM/C .
4. Support countries in planning, implementing and monitoring policies and programmes to prevent and respond to child marriages and FGM/C.

• Training teachers to fight FGM and child, early and forced marriages by being change agents in sensitizing the children, parents and the community
• Designing and pushing for the FGM eradication program into school curriculum in Uganda
• Commitment to expand education for girls and keep them in school
• Implementing social protection programs that mobilise and motivate girl’s schooling. Supporting menstrual hygiene management and sanitation facilities to encourage girls’ school attendance.
• Addressing school-related gender based violence through parenting seminars and radio programs
• Helping mobilize action by young people, families, communities, and civil society groups to end FGM/C and child marriage by the voice of women radio programs.
• Using social media and other communication tools to elevate the voices of girls themselves and engage men and boys to bring about change.

World Vision, a global partnership working in nearly 100 countries, commits to do all we can to protect children from the extreme harm of child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) and female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). We will make every effort to:

• Pilot and scale up innovative programme models in new contexts to engage faith leaders and men and boys to join us to stop CEFM and FGM/C.
• Highlight the increased vulnerability of children to CEFM and other risks in disaster and conflict situations: We will integrate child protection and gender based violence response at the core of our new Disaster Management strategy.
• Scale up our Life Skills training for girls and boys to promote gender equality and awareness, equipping them to protect themselves and others and to advocate against CEFM and FGM/C.
• Closely monitor our effectiveness and impact through evaluations that involve the girls and boys and communities we serve and contribute to building a new evidence-base on CEFM and FGM/C.
• Ensure more girls and boys are registered at birth.
• Secure new resources to increase our capacity and scale up our programming to create a protective environment for children and prevent CEFM and FGM/C.
• Strengthen or form new partnerships to work together on CEFM and FGM/C at multiple levels with national and global coalitions, faith leaders and civil society organisation.

I, Yanga Jacob Lagu, commit to mobilising the diaspora community in standing up against forced and early child marriage in South Sudan. It is achievable!!