Where You’ll Find Equality Now At The SADC People’s Summit 2024

The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) People’s Summit takes place from 15th – 16th August 2024 in Harare, Zimbabwe.  Equality Now will be joining the SADC People’s Summit for several events and hosting a side event advocating for action to end child marriage in the region.

Please find events that Equality Now will be involved in at the SADC People’s Summit below.

SADC End Child Marriage: Promoting Implementation of the SADC Model Law on Ending Child Marriage and Protecting Children Already In Marriage 

Thursday, August 15, 2024, 2 pm to 4 pm (Central African Time)

We’re hosting a side event to the SADC People’s Summit ( 15-16 August 2024) focusing on the SADC End Child Marriage Campaign and take stock of the implementation of the Model Law in the SADC region, highlighting the challenges in implementation, best practices, and recommendations on how youth can champion collective advocacy to accelerate and strengthen implementation within the Southern Africa region.

If you’re attending the People’s Summit in person, please join us at the Management Training Bureau Centre from 2 pm to 4 pm, Harare, Zimbabwe. 

You can also register to join us online here. 

Launch of The Women’s Political Participation Africa Barometer

Thursday, August 15, 2024, 8.30 am to 11 am, (Central African Time)

Our colleagues will be joining Gender Links for the launch of the Women’s Political Participation Barometer on 15 August 2024. Sally Ncube, Regional Representative for Southern Africa at Equality Now will be the Director of Ceremonies for the event, and Judy Gitau, Regional Coordinator for Africa at Equality Now will be delivering our Solidarity Remarks.

Join us online as from 8.30 am to 11 am, (Central African Time) using this link. 

More about our work to end child marriage in Southern Africa and around the world 

Equality Now has been working on preventing child marriage since 1995, calling on governments to enact and enforce laws that prohibit child marriage, as well as advocating for a minimum marriage age of 18, with no exceptions. In addition to legal advocacy, we have a long and successful history in galvanizing movements, supporting strategic litigation, and working with governments to implement and enforce laws on child marriage using a multi-sectoral approach in Africa. In 2023, Equality Now, in partnership with UNFPA, implemented a Regional and National Advocacy program to Accelerate Ending Child Marriage in Eastern and Southern Africa.

The campaign was designed based on the key findings of the joint scoping assessment conducted in 2021 by Equality Now and UNFPA, on the Southern Africa Development Community Model Law on Eradicating Child Marriage and Protecting Children Already in Marriage (SADC Model Law) and its implementation in Southern Africa. The campaign was a catalyst for advocacy for the implementation of a strong multisectoral approach to addressing child marriage in the region, including domestication and implementation of the SADC Model Law. The campaign focused on: 

• The engagement of political champions at the regional level and government stakeholders in Malawi, Uganda, and Zambia as well as strengthening collaboration amongst CSOs working on ending child marriage in the Eastern and Southern Africa region.  

• The strengthening of the work of the African Union (AU) mechanisms on ending child marriage.  
• The capacity building of CSOs, CSO forums, country advocacy, and movement building covering  Malawi, Uganda, and Zambia. 

As part of the campaign, Equality Now with UNFPA, and the SADC Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF) developed and widely disseminated 4 insightful policy briefs that shed light on crucial aspects of the domestication and implementation of the SADC Model Law against the implementation of laws on child marriage by countries in Eastern and Southern Africa.