Education, Relevant Tool to Discourage Early Child Marriage – UNICEF
By Alex Uangbaoje, Keffi
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday that giving proper education to children, especially to girls, was capable of preventing early child marriage in the country.
Dr Zakari Adam, the Chief of Field Office, UNICEF, Kaduna, stated this in Keffi, Nasarawa State, during the three-day capacity building for 30 participants (UNICEF partners) on Result Based Management (RBM).
The three-day training is organized by UNICEF in collaboration with Planning Commission in Nasarawa for partners from Nasarawa and Niger states.
Adam, who said that education is the right of every child, appealed to parents, government and other stakeholders to provide good education for their female wards in order to discourage early marriage among girls for the overall development of the country.
He explained that the aim of the training was to equip participants with skills that would enable them achieve result-based interventions towards promoting the plight of women and children.
Adam said that, UNICEF was committed to addressing the challenges facing women and children in Nigeria in order to improve on their health status and standard of living, hence the need for the training.
“UNICEF is focusing on families, we have regard for that and we are committed to continue to collaborate with government to create awareness with regards to protecting and promoting the rights of children.
“Parents should ensure that their children are protected and are not put under unnecessary violence. Children should be sent to school rather than being out of school.
“Issues of early marriage especially by female children should be discouHraged. So any person who marries below the age of 18 years according to the UN standard is regarded as early marriage.”
“But unfortunately, some girls have been submitted to early marriage and this is resulting to huge consequences in terms of their health and their education. It is important issues that our families, our people are facing.
“So to tackle such, the school attendance and completion to full potential of every child can be a very relevant means to prevent early child marriage as taking daughters to school can prevent them from marrying so early,” Adam said.
He added that the development of any society depends upon the quality of education that has been given to the girl child. According to him, education remains the best legacy parents and government could bequeath any child.
Also speaking, Mr Stanley Garuba, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, UNICEF Kaduna Field Office, who facilitates the training, spoke on the topic titled “Human Rights Based Approach to Programme (HRBAP), tasked the participants on productivity and results in their places of primary assignment.
“The Result Based Management is applicable at every level, whatever we plan, let’s focus on result – based as applied to women and children because this is basically the way to go to achieve meaningful and measurable development.” he said.
The training brought together participants from Nasarawa and Niger states respectively drawn from different ministries and agencies in which Mr Rabiu Musa, Communication Officer of UNICEF, Kaduna was also on ground.
