Building Child Marriage-free Communities
HER CHOICE is an alliance of four Netherlands-based organisations: Stichting Kinderpostzegels Nederland, The Hunger Project, International Child Development Initiatives (ICDI) and the University of Amsterdam. These organisations combine their efforts with 27 local partner organisations to combat child marriage in eleven countries. The programme runs from January 2016 to December 2020 and is implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
ICDI will be active in 5 countries: Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Description
Our long-term goal is ‘Girls are free to decide if, when and whom they marry’.
Aiming for gender equity (equal access, possibilities and treatment) is at the core of all our interventions. In addition, we promote the inclusion of marginalised and disadvantaged groups in our programme. Special focus is given to girls being hidden at home, girls with disabilities, children of minorities and the poorest of the poor.
Our strategies focus on:
- Increasing girls’ control in decision-making regarding issues that shape their lives, and their access to opportunities such as education, health care and income generation;
- Mobilising relevant community actors as change agents to address underlying factors, beliefs and processes leading to child marriage.
Strategies
Strategy I: invest in girls, their knowledge, skills and participation in society.
Strategy II: improve access to formal education for girls.
Strategy III: improve access to youth-friendly SRH-services for girls.
Strategy IV: improve the economic security of girls and their families.
Strategy V: mobilise communities to transform social norms that are detrimental to achieving gender equity.
Strategy VI: create an enabling legal and policy environment on preventing child marriage.
For more information on our activities, please download the programme document.
