Nigeria: Forced Marriage

(asked on 25th February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to support the Government of Nigeria on the prevention of child marriage.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 7th March 2022

The UK Government is committed to empowering and protecting women and girls, including by supporting efforts to end the harmful practice of child marriage. Our programmes and advocacy in Nigeria continue to support efforts to improve the lives of women and girls, in areas including education, social protection, health, addressing gender-based violence, and economic empowerment. UK ODA has supported education in 11 states, reaching over 8 million children since 2009, and supported over 1 million additional girls to access schooling in six states since 2012. I was pleased to be able to discuss UK ODA support to Nigeria during my visit to Nigeria last month, where I held meetings with the Vice President, Foreign Minister and several State Governors.

As an example, our basic education programme, Partnership for Learning for All in Nigeria (PLANE), has a community engagement component that will support efforts to enable and improve learning for marginalised children (particularly girls). The programme will support interventions which encourage the postponement of marriage and childbearing. It will also work with a range of community stakeholders, such as traditional and community leaders, to address the social norms around early marriage.

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