TheDiggerNews
Abuja — The Malala Fund has announced support for four Nigerian organisations working to implement the National Strategy to End Child Marriage, with girls’ education positioned as the central tool for change.
The two-year Joint Action Grant (JAG) will drive coordinated advocacy and implementation efforts nationwide, with a focus on Adamawa, Borno, Kano, Kaduna, and Bauchi states.
Nankwat Mbi, Communications Manager of the Malala Fund in Nigeria, said the initiative is led by Education As a Vaccine (EVA) in partnership with YouthHubAfrica (YHA), the Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA), and Onelife Initiative.
She noted that the coalition combines strengths in policy advocacy, grassroots mobilisation, research, and coalition-building, with proven experience in translating national commitments into state-level action.
Beyond policy advocacy, the coalition will challenge harmful social norms through storytelling and behaviour-change campaigns, mobilise male allies, engage community champions, and strengthen multi-stakeholder partnerships.
The goal, Mbi stressed, is sustained collective action that keeps girls in school and supports re-entry when needed.
She highlighted the urgency of the intervention, noting that over 30% of Nigerian girls marry before age 18, with rates rising to 50% in the Northeast and Northwest.
Evidence from Accelerate Hub shows that effective education-focused programmes could reduce child marriage among out-of-school adolescent girls in Northern Nigeria by two-thirds within four years, potentially preventing 327,000 child marriages.
Malala Fund’s Nigeria Chief Executive, Nabila Aguele, said the grant would help move Nigeria’s National Strategy “from paper to action,” stressing the need for political will, clear state plans, financing, and accountability.
She underscored that keeping girls in secondary school — whether married or unmarried — is one of the most powerful policy choices governments can make to break the cycle of child marriage.
The coalition will also advocate for re-entry policies enabling married and pregnant girls to return to school, while pushing states to adopt action plans with timelines, financing, and accountability measures. Education, Aguele affirmed, must remain the core driver of Nigeria’s fight against child marriage.
