Time to Act!
A blueprint for ending child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) in the APAC region
Child, Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) is a harmful practice and global human rights issue disproportionately affecting girls, which frequently leads to serious negative consequences, denying millions of girls the opportunity to fulfil their potential.
Targeting this issue, Plan International gathered their teams from across the APAC region and asked Bridge to facilitate a 3-day workshop to co-creating a campaign plan that could be rolled out across their regional teams.
Objective
Co-create a 5-year APAC-wide campaign plan for regional and national offices to support campaigning to eliminate CEFM by 2030
Demographic
Regional Hubs, Country Offices, Youth Advocates, Allies and Community Leaders
Types of work
Strategy, Workshops & Facilitation, Campaigning
Themes
Gender Equality, Child Protection
Background
Over 650 million women suffer the consequences of child marriage today, which will rise to 800 million by 2030 at current rates without action.
The challenge is particularly acute in Asia-Pacific, where South Asia alone accounts for over 40% of the world's child brides.
In South Asia:
45% prevalence of CEFM among females
〰️
12m under-18 girls married each year
〰️
1 girl married every 2 seconds
〰️
45% prevalence of CEFM among females 〰️ 12m under-18 girls married each year 〰️ 1 girl married every 2 seconds 〰️
% of 20-24 year-old women who were married as a child:
35% in Lao PDR
〰️
23% in Thailand
〰️
19% in Cambodia
〰️
16% in Indonesia
〰️
16% in Myanmar
〰️
15% in Philippines
〰️
11% in Vietnam
〰️
35% in Lao PDR 〰️ 23% in Thailand 〰️ 19% in Cambodia 〰️ 16% in Indonesia 〰️ 16% in Myanmar 〰️ 15% in Philippines 〰️ 11% in Vietnam 〰️
This campaign plan had to strengthen overall regional coherence whilst continuing to adapt to local nuance and reinforce local level campaign impact.
The final outcome was the in-depth, 5-year campaign plan for use in Plan’s regional approach.
“For parents, getting their daughters married off as soon as they can is the easiest option. It involves the least hassle.
For girls, this means a dead end.”
-Shakina, Youth Advocate, India
Approach
Bridge designed a 3-day workshop with pre and post engagement activities to prepare and reinforce elements of the sessions.
The success of the workshop and the ensuing campaign execution plan (extracts shown here were defined across two key criteria:
Technical / assessing the feasibility and effectiveness of the overall strategy and its potential for application.
Buy-in / the understanding and belief of all involved parties in the Regional Campaign Strategy and commitment to being part of it.
Results
"I truly enjoyed working with Bridge. We reached out to them with a tight timeline but Bridge was able to understand the task at hand very quickly and develop a cohesive workshop plan, which resulted in a very interactive and engaging 3-day workshop".
- Tran Huu Phuong Anh, Youth Engagement & Campaign Coordinator - Asia-Pacific region
8.4
Overall workshop rating
8.1
Satisfaction with content
8.5
Satisfaction with facilitation
22 of 23
Said it met expectations
