Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage is delighted to announce that it has been awarded a grant by the IKEA Foundation to extend its work to end child marriage. Speaking about the work that the Partnership does and the impact this grant will have, Lakshmi Sundaram, Executive Director of Girls Not Brides, said:
“Every year, 15 million girls around the world are married as children and are deprived of their childhood, putting their health and education at risk. Girls Not Brides works with local members to bring child marriage to global attention, calling for laws, policies and programmes that will help millions of girls around the world have a safer, healthier and more prosperous future.”
“We are delighted that the IKEA Foundation is supporting our work through this grant. It will enable us to ramp up our efforts with members to end child marriage in their country or community, enabling girls to live the life that they choose,” added Lakshmi Sundaram. “Together we will bring child marriage to global attention and make a difference to the lives of millions of girls.”
When Girls Not Brides was launched in 2011, child marriage was still considered a taboo topic, but international momentum to address the issue has been increasing steadily over the past five years. Today, there are resolutions aimed to tackle child marriage at the United Nations and the Human Rights Council, and there is a target to end child marriage included in the Global Goals for Sustainable Development.
Although great strides have been made over the past five years to end child marriage, without increased funding and accelerated progress at local and national levels, an additional 1.2 billion girls will be married by 2050. Funding and support, such as that provided by the IKEA Foundation, will make a vital difference.