'Invest in girls to break the cycle of poverty,' say ex-first ladies Obama and Machel

If you want to break the cycle of poverty in communities, invest in teenage girls.

That’s the message from Graca Machel, widow of former president Nelson Mandela and former first lady of Mozambique. 

Machel was speaking in Cape Town with former US first lady Michelle Obama, global philanthropist Melinda French Gates and human rights lawyer Amal Clooney on ending child marriages.

Machel said when women are empowered they shift communities and institutions and drive legislation and equality. They change lives and transform families, political institutions and society. 

“They have strong agendas of advocacy, from the community or county level, from regional or global level. They are doing it. That's the example of where we could be if we invested seriously in girls.”  

Machel, who introduced herself as an activist for women rather than a former first lady, said one of the shortcomings of activists was not exposing those in authority to the power young girls have. 

Her NGO, the Graça Machel Trust’s mission is to amplify women's voices, influence governance, promote women's leadership and advocate protecting adolescent girls' rights and dignity. 

Machel said if communities want to deal with the problem of child marriages, man-made cultural norms that devalue women and make them vulnerable to child marriages need to be challenged.

“The fundamental thing is we have to remind the world a girl is a human being who has an identity and potential, has dreams and a right to decide what to do with her life, like everyone else.” 

It was important that such investments be made much earlier in the lives of young girls to break the cycle of poverty. 

Unicef estimates that 650-million girls and women alive today were married before their 18th birthdays. More than 50-million  of them live in Eastern and Southern Africa. Nearly one third (32%) of the region’s young women were married before the age of 18.

Obama had just returned from Malawi where she met partner organisations that advocate for an end to child marriages. She said it was one of the countries facing the problem of child marriages, with 42% of young girls married before the age of 18 and 9% before their 15th birthday. After spending time with girls there, she said: “I saw myself in those girls.” 

Some of the girls were trying to empower themselves and shared stories of others who had left home to fight their way back into classrooms “because they understand the difference education can make for them”.  

“I saw myself in those girls. First, this isn't an issue that's unique to the African continent. In America, we struggle with valuing. And I was one of those girls. I grew up in a working class community. My parents didn't have the opportunity to go to college. We didn't have wealth. We were regular black folks from the South of Chicago. We were poor,” said Obama. 

Last October, Obama, French Gates and Clooney announced a collaboration between their  organisations to advance gender equality and end child marriages. They  committed to support organisations working to end child marriages. They also help young women overcome barriers and reach their full potential.  

Obama said the only difference between her and the girls is that at home she was valued and seen. “I had parents who valued me, including a father who saw me as being as valuable as my brother. So they understood I had something to offer and that turned energy into it.” 

Education was the ticket out of poverty.  

“Invest in her. That's what I think when I go to Malawi. The answers to everything we're looking for in these girls is here. They are smart. They are ambitious. They know what they know. All they need is a chance. So they need leaders such as us, all of you who have access and power and money.” 

French Gates, who was part of the panel of speakers at the event at the Centre for the Book where stakeholders such as funders and advocates committed to eradicating child marriages gathered, called on countries to invest in reproductive health to reduce maternal mortality.

“There is no country in the world that has gone from [a] low to [a higher] income country without offering contraception to girls.”

One of the issues countries with high rates of child marriages are grappling with is maternal mortality, as most girls are pressurised to have babies though they are underage. Women who marry young are likely to end up dying during pregnancy or childbirth as their bodies are not ready for pregnancy. Their babies are also likely to be underweight, perpetuating the cycle of poverty.

French Gates said the more girls were taught about their bodies the less likely they were to fall pregnant underage.

“There is no-one size fits all approach to ending child marriage, it requires different interventions in different contexts. But we know one thing: we have to start by investing in women and girls,” she said. 

Clooney, who is a co-founder of the Clooney Foundation for Justice, highlighted the power of law to effect change and the need for international collaboration to enforce legal measures against child marriage. 

“We need to wage justice, it doesn’t just happen. More than 40 African nations have child marriage laws that do not comply with international standards. Child marriage affects girls' health, increases their risk of being subjected to violence and reduces their educational and employment opportunities.” 

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