Zambia adopted to host 'African Union Girls Summit'

By Staff Reporter, Lusaka 

Minister of Gender, Nkandu Luo has confirmed that Zambia has been adopted to host a first ever African Union Girls Summit. 

Prof. Luo says the summit will take place in Lusaka from November 26 to 27, 2015. 

She describes this opportunity as a privilege especially that the prevalence rate of child marriages in Zambia stand at 46 percent. 

Prof. Luo says that child marriage is a serious development, social and economic issue that requires concerted efforts to curb. 

“A child is a child and should remain a child. It doesn’t matter whether she has reached puberty or the parents feel she is ready to be married off. As a ministry, we are advocating children to remain in school and not to be married off at a tender age,” she says. 

Speaking at a press briefing Prof. Luo says the summit will cover topics such as best practices to adopt in an effort to eliminate child marriages and modalities for curbing child marriages and the role of key stakeholders in ending the scourge, among other interesting topics, lamenting that early marriages have for a long time been identified as drivers of sexually transmitted infections, medical conditions such as fistula and high divorce cases. 

And a representative of the AU delegation, John Strijdom adds that the summit will help create a roadmap and action plan on ending the scourge.