PREVENTION AND RESPONSE TO GBV AND ENDING EARLY/FORCED CHILD MARRIAGE IN MUNDRI AND YAMBIO COUNTIES, SOUTH SUDAN
The prevailing and rising rape, gender based violence (GBV) and early/forced marriage, including teenage pregnancies in South Sudan states (as per the stats on GBV-IMS, UNCEF, UNHCR, UNFPA reports), especially in Western Equatoria state is concerning and requires exhorted efforts from stakeholders at grassroots levels of Mundri and Yambio counties to collectively invest in the establishment of Family Protection Centers (FPC) or One Stop Centers (OSC), and ensure the promotion and prevention of GBV and early forced marriage and other harmful traditional practices.
ADAFIN in partnership with UNFPA currently runs and provides continued support to an OSC/FPC in Awiel, Northern Bahr el Ghazal State since 2018. The OSC contributes to a sustainable and improved provision of immediate lifesaving services to victims of GBV and child protection services to address early/forced marriage. Therefore; ADAFIN plans to replicate its experience on programme, activities and services on GBV and ending early/forced marriage and teenage pregnancies in Mundri and Yambio counties. Yambio already has a partner-operated OSC but lacks GBV and early/forced child marriage services, while construction of an OSC in Mundri county is of immense need.
The project’s objective shall seek to build an increased multi-sectoral capacity to prevent and respond to GBV and harmful traditional practices, including ending child marriage, contribute to sustainable and improved provision of immediate lifesaving services to GBV victims and child protection services to address early/forced marriage in Mundri and Yambio counties. Targeted beneficiaries shall primarily be made up of 10,000 most vulnerable people comprised of children (girls and boys) and youth (male and female) and adults (men and women). The key activities will include construction of a Family Protection Centre (FPC) also known as One Stop Centre (OSC) stakeholder and beneficiary mobilization, planning including reviews of the customary laws on child marriages in Mundri and Yambio counties, sensitizations of the key stakeholder groups, state level conferences for discussions on legislations, customary laws and ways of addressing and preventing early/forced marriages including public declarations to eliminate child and forced marriages. This will in addition involve presentation of formulated bills to curb early/forced marriage bill to the state council of ministers, information dissemination on early/forced marriage bill through public announcement, public hearings and through radio/TV talk shows and interviews with role models.
Advance Africa Initiative (ADAFIN) seeks to work in close partnership and collaboration with stakeholder groups at the national, state and county level, including with the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare (MoGCSW), Protection (Child Protection) Cluster, UNICEF, UNFPA, state and county authorities, women, youth and church leaders and CBOs from project inception, planning, Implementation, M&E and reporting processes.
