Project profile — Girls Not Brides - Institutional Support 2020-2023

• South of Sahara, regional (55.00%)
• West Indies, regional (5.00%)
• North and Central America, regional (5.00%)
• Middle East, regional (10.00%)
• Asia, regional (25.00%)

• Government And Civil Society, General: Ending violence against women and girls (15180) (100.00%)

• Gender equality (principal objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (not targeted)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (principal objective)
• Youth Issues (principal objective)
• Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• Nutrition (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)

This grant represents Canada’s institutional support to Girls Not Brides. Girls Not Brides uses these funds, along with other donor’s funding to achieve its mandate of ending child, early and forced marriage (CEFM). Girls Not Brides is a global partnership of 1,600 civil society organizations in 100 countries. Members are based throughout Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas, and are united by a commitment to end child marriage and enable girls to reach their full potential. Project activities include: (1) raising awareness of the harmful impact of child marriage by encouraging open, inclusive and informed discussion at the community, local, national and international level; (2) facilitating learning and coordination among organizations working to end child marriage; and (3) mobilizing all necessary policy, financial and other support to end child marriage.

The expected outcome for this project include: (1) governments take action to end child marriage and address the needs of married girls in their countries, with the active participation of civil society and other stakeholders; (2) the global community champions and supports efforts to end child marriage; (3) efforts to engage communities, families and girls are supported and highlighted; (4) more sustainable funding for effective approaches is available from a diverse range of sources, particularly for grassroots organizations; (5) efforts to end child marriage are informed by evidence and lessons learned; and (6) the partnership continues to collaborate, diversify and strengthen.

Results achieved by Girls Not Brides through the support of the Government of Canada and other international donors at the end of the project (December 2023) include: (1) strengthened the capacity of 686 local organizations and groups in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. This helped to strengthen coalitions and movement building to end child, early and forced marriage; (2) reached 195,000 people in Latin America and the Caribbean with an information campaign on the impact of Covid-19 in increasing gender-based violence, including child marriage; (3) trained 3,067 girls on government programs and 3,000 adolescent girls to raise awareness of gender equality for the International Day of the Girl Child in Uttar Pradesh, India; (4) supported national networks of civil society organizations to advocate with national governments to support the Canada-Zambia led biennial United Nations General Assembly Child, Early and Forced Marriage Resolution. This resolution was co-sponsored by 125 countries in 2022; (5) contributed to 6 national legislative processes, which led to tangible policy and funding outcomes. This resulted in increased government funding for education and child marriage prevention in Malawi, civil society contributing to developing Nigeria's national strategy, and expanding the mandate of a shelter for survivors of gender-based violence in Côte d'Ivoire. It also led to a more user-friendly National Strategy to End Child Marriage in Uganda and a provincial government in Nepal committed to addressing children's rights; and (6) disseminated evidence on priority topics on child marriage and deepened stakeholders’ understanding. This helped establish the Child Marriage research to Action Network (CRANK). This network includes 540 members from around the world. 83% of participants reported that CRANK research meetings enhanced their understanding of evidence and solutions and 44% indicated that their participation strengthened their advocacy and policy efforts.

• Proactive disclosure