Sexual Reproductive Health, HIV Prevention and Research

The project recognizes the need for Malawi to have a progressive policy legal framework to address teenage pregnancies, child marriages and promote women’s and child health. As part of this work, JournAIDS in 2014 joined the Girls Not Brides (Global Partnership to End Child Marriages) as a member.

JournAIDS is also contributing towards the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Goal 3 which seeks to promote the healthy well- being of all people by 2030.

Taking into serious consideration that Malawi failed to attain Millennium Development Goal 5 on maternal health, it is now the time for the country to take bold steps to curb child marriages to tackle maternal mortality which is remains a huge challenge.

At present, Malawi needs to strengthen enforcement of the newly enacted Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Act and fully implement it by allocating adequate resources. On average, one out of two girls in the country will be married by her eighteenth birthday, according to the United Nations.

In 2010, half of women aged 20 to 24 years were married or in union before they were 18. Some are as young as 9 or 10 when they are married.

Many Malawian communities see child marriage as being in the best interests of girls and their families. Some families see it as an important way to improve their economic status, sometimes through payment of dowry by the groom to the bride’s family, or through continued support by their daughter’s husband. For some girls, marriage may suggest a route, often unfulfilled, to escape poverty.