Shine Collab urges regional framework to tackle child marriage, climate justice

Southern Africa commemorates a decade since the adoption of the SADC Model Law on Eradicating Child Marriage, as escalating child abuse, Gender-Based Violence and exploitation across the region demand a more comprehensive strategy. At the SADC People’s Summit 2026, Dr Melania Chiponda, an ecofeminist scholar, urged for a regional framework that intertwines child marriage prevention, climate justice, and accountability for extractive industries.

She stressed that while the Model Law's 18-year minimum age of marriage is crucial, legal protections alone cannot tackle the evolving factors pushing girls into marriage. Dr Chiponda highlighted the surge in lithium, cobalt, graphite, and other critical mineral extraction projects in Southern Africa, which are altering rural economies and land use.

Concurrently, recurring droughts, floods, and failed harvests are eroding household resilience and pushing families towards harmful measures, such as transactional sex and early marriage. She argued that child marriage should be viewed as a structural issue, encompassing land dispossession, livelihood loss, extractive industries, and climate-related shocks.

The Summit emphasized the need to align child protection frameworks with regional "just transition" agendas, proposing reforms like stronger corporate accountability, gender-responsive consent processes, climate-displacement protocols, integration with just transition frameworks, and enhanced protection for land and environmental defenders.

Despite policy advancements, child rights organizations report high levels of abuse and exploitation in Southern Africa, with 30% of young women married before 18 and nearly one-third of these brides experiencing intimate partner violence.