Implementing a Gender-Sensitive Budgeting Approach in the Enugu and Nsukka Zones of Enugu State, Nigeria

Project 1: Implementing a gender-sensitive budgeting approach in the Enugu and Nsukka Zones of Enugu State, Nigeria ...... 1 Project 2: A gender-responsive budget advocacy campaign to end child marriage in Punjab Province, Pakistan ...... 5 Project 3: Budget advocacy for implementation of district-kevel monitoring committees to end child marriage and to fund Women’s Safe Houses to support married girls in Sindh Province, Pakistan ...... 8 Project 4: Linda Mtoto (Protect a Child), Kilifi County, Kenya ...... 11 Project 5: Child protection through budget advocacy to end child marriage in the communes of Est-Mono and Anié, Togo ...... 14 Project 6: Budget allocation for the prevention of formal or informal, early, child/adolescent unions in Mexico: The case of the SIPINNA and its application at the federal, state and municipal level ...... 17

Girls Not Brides member organisation: Society for the Improvement of Rural People (SIRP) Pilot funding amount: US$8,330

PICTURED: Participants in a State/Public Dialogue on Budget Advocacy in Enugu State, Nigeria. Photo: Girls Not Brides/SIRP strategy’s vision is to reduce child marriage by 40% by 2020 and end the practice entirely A total of 43% of girls in Nigeria are married by 2030, and is one of the key policy before the age of 18 and 16% before turning frameworks used by SIRP to hold 1 15. Child marriage is most common in the government accountable in this project. North West and North East of the country, where up to 68% of women aged 20-49 were child brides. 2 Child marriage is most In this project, SIRP worked to common among Nigeria’s poorest, rural institutionalise a gender-responsive households. 3 Ending child marriage could budgeting approach to preparing annual generate an additional US$7.6 billion in budgets in the Enugu and Nsukka zones of earnings and productivity in the country. 4 Enugu State in Nigeria. They worked to In 2016 the Ministry of Women Affairs and direct budgetary allocations towards Social Development launched a National interventions that support adolescent girls Strategy to End Child Marriage. 5 The

1 National Population Commission (NPC) and ICF, Nigeria 4 World Bank and International Center for Research on demographic and health survey 2018, 2019. Women (ICRW), Economic impacts of child marriage: 2 National Bureau of Statistics and UNICEF, Multiple Work, earnings and household welfare brief, 2017. indicator cluster survey 2016-17: Survey findings report, 5 Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social 2017. Development, National strategy to end child marriage in 3 Ibid. Nigeria (2016-2021), 2016. 1 and address child marriage in the 2020 Enugu State Budget. SIRP used key policy frameworks to strengthen accountability systems and increase financing. These were the National Gender Policy Strategic Framework (Implementation Plan) 2008-13, the National Strategy to End Child Marriage 2016-21, enforcement of the Enugu State Child Rights Law 2004 and Violence Against Persons Prohibition Bill 2019.

PICTURED: Enugu State Budget 2019-21 now includes budget lines that  Ministry of Gender and Social support adolescent girls and address child marriage. Development Photo: Girls Not Brides/SIRP

 Ministry of Education  The body of Permanent Secretaries officially committed to gender-  Ministry of Budget and Planning responsive budgeting as a framework  Members of the legislature and judiciary for the state annual budget, beginning in 2020. They will:  Civil society organisations (CSO) o Promote gender mainstreaming by  The media considering revenue raising and spending o  Budget lines that support adolescent Analyse the budget’s gender- girls and address child marriage are differentiated impacts institutionalised within the 2020 o Adjust budgetary decisions and Enugu State Budget, with priorities according to the different approximately US$6.8 million needs of girls, boys, women and men allocated to: This was achieved thanks to trainings o Child/social protection with 50 policymakers and government o Primary school completion for girls officials, and a State Dialogue on gender- responsive budgeting with members of o Reduction of gender disparity and the executive, legislature, judiciary, CSOs increase of (girls’) secondary school and the media. The official commitment attendance resulted from a training for Permanent o Provision of sanitary pads to girls and Secretaries and Senior Budget Officers on young women how to prepare a gender mainstreamed Budget Call Circular.

 The media and civil society have the functional and programmatic budget greater knowledge of the key policy classifications of the Gender and issues affecting a government’s Education Ministries’ budgets. budgetary decisions and are able to  A systems approach supports advocacy influence this at the state level. They for public spending on gender/social are also more aware of the role they play welfare issues like child marriage. This in monitoring government expenditure is because social issues related to child and can flag up misspending via elected protection and child marriages are often members of the Enugu State House of incorrectly conceptualised and budgeted Assembly, the media and public for, if at all. In the Enugu State 2020 mobilisation. This was achieved through Budget, SIRP ensured the adoption of a training on gender-responsive budgeting. systems approach by providing budget  Relationships between SIRP and the line items for the social/child protection Ministries of Budget and Planning, sectors. Education and Gender Affairs are  Advocacy should go beyond budget stronger and dedicated to gender- allocation to address child marriage. responsive budgeting from 2020. A In implementing the pilot project, SIRP WhatsApp group was set up for deepened their understanding of the government and non-state actors to share complexity of budgeting to end child information on global best practices and marriage, particularly in: resources on gender-responsive budgeting and child marriage. o Challenging and influencing policies and budgets at the state (sub-  A committee headed and convened by national) level. Mrs. Peace Nnaji – the Honourable Commissioner for Gender Affairs – o Advocating not just for more will develop a framework to enforce resources, but for a more gender- the Enugu State Child Rights Law and equitable and efficient use of those Enugu State Violence Against Persons resources. Prohibition Law. These two statutes o Advocating for resources within and criminalise all forms of gender-based across sectors, and for child violence. protection and education for girls. o Improving government transparency  Child marriage interventions should and accountability and citizen-led be linked and costed to a programme participatory budgeting processes. and budget. It can be more effective to o Influencing decision-making work with state actors to agree a few key processes in public budgets – both intervention areas in different sectors. In those on paper, and the “behind the the Enugu State 2020 Budget, SIRP scenes” informal decision-making influenced the linking of budget lines on processes. “Child Protection” and “Completion of Primary School Education” for girls under  CSOs can connect budget numbers with real-life stories to build an 3 investment case for action on child cannot convince governments to take marriage. Statistics, cost of inaction and action on child marriage. economic arguments alone do not and

“We shared stories and experiences of a number of girl child school dropouts in the 17 local government councils of Enugu State […] due to poverty, lack of access to school facilities, patriarchy and the consequent result of forced and early marriage for these young girls […] We painted a scenario of the impact of the practices of child marriage on the girl child, and in that way we were able to secure approval of State actors.” Dr. Christopher Ugwu, SIRP

Girls Not Brides member organisation: Formation, Awareness and Community Empowerment Society (FACES) Pilot funding amount: US$7,831 minimum age of marriage for girls and boys is 18, as defined by the Sindh Child A total of 18% of girls in Pakistan are Marriage Restraint Act. married before the age of 18 and almost 4% are married before 15.6 Child marriage is more prevalent in rural areas. 7 Ending In this project, FACES delivered a gender- child marriage could see a 13% rise in responsive budget advocacy campaign to earnings and productivity for Pakistani address child marriage in Punjab province. women who married early.8 They wanted to ensure that key sectoral Under the Child Marriage Restraint Act departments of Punjab’s provincial 1929 the minimum legal age of marriage is government – the education, health and 16 for girls and 18 for boys. In 2019, a Child child protection sectors – were Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill was incorporating child marriage and gender passed in the Pakistani Senate to increase equality issues for adolescent girls into the minimum age of marriage for girls to 18 their budgeting and planning processes. years. Religious political parties in Pakistan FACES focused on three main components: opposed the bill, claiming it to be against  Budget analysis: FACES carried out a Islam, and recommended that it be sent to gender-responsive analysis of Punjab’s the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) before health, education and child protection being discussed in the Senate. However, budgets for 2019-20. the bill was passed by the Senate and awaits debate in the National Assembly.  Budget advocacy campaign: FACES called for more gender-responsive Child marriage has become a provincial provincial sectoral budgets in health issue since many powers were education and child protection, taking decentralised to the provinces and into account the needs of adolescent territories in 2010. The Punjab Government girls. has proposed a bill to amend the age of marriage from 16 to 18 years (a bill  Budget commitments from introducing harsher penalties for marriage government: FACES worked with key before 16 has already been adopted), and stakeholders in government to create a other provinces have proposed similar amendments (Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). In Sindh province, the

6 National Institute of Population Studies (NIPS) and ICF, 7 Ibid. Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2017-18, 2019. 8 World Bank and ICRW, op. cit. 5

set of commitments on how they would incorporate budgetary changes on spending for women and girls into the sectoral budgets of the health, education and child protection sectors.

Through the project, FACES directly engaged 75 targeted stakeholders including:

 Government officials directly involved in budgeting processes

 Parliamentarians, particularly women and those who represent parliamentary committees

 Political leaders involved in provincial budgeting processes

 The media

 Other civil society organisations

 Academic representatives PICTURED: A campaign for gender-responsive budgeting run by FACES. Photo: Girls Not Brides/FACES  FACES used their budget analysis to increase awareness of existing gender inequalities in the provincial health, education and child protection budget among key government officials, sectoral budgets. This was in response parliamentarians, civil society, the to: media and academia in the education, o FACES’s budget advocacy campaign health and child protection sectors. strategy and materials, sectoral policy They did this through a campaign, briefs, presentations of the sectoral meetings and dialogues. FACES also budget analyses, calendar and other increased awareness among targeted campaign materials. stakeholders of the importance of using o a gender lens in policy formulation, Events and dialogues with planning and resource allocation. stakeholders, including a Budget Advocacy Workshop and Dialogue,  Government stakeholders and consultative sessions with committed to increasing gender- parliamentarians and government responsive budget allocations and officials. spending for women and girls in the

 A multi-agency taskforce is planned  Girls and women should be involved for the upcoming budget to increase to ensure their needs are included in inter-departmental coordination. It budgets. Girls’ and women’s voices are will be comprised of 10 provincial largely missing from planning and members from key sectoral departments budgeting processes. Strategies that including the Department of Human include them need to be put in place. Rights and Minority Affairs, Punjab Examples include assigning a designated Treaty Implementation Cell, Women focal person from each sectoral Development Department, Punjab department to liaise with girls and Commission on the Status of Women, women, or to include a girls’ and Planning and Development Board, women’s representative on the FACES Pakistan, Health Department government’s inter-departmental

and parliamentarians. taskforce.

 Government transparency and accountability is an ongoing issue.  There are many cost-effective actions Government structures in Punjab need governments can take to make their reform to ensure that funds allocated to budgets more gender-responsive gender-related budgets for girls and without additional financial women are being used for their intended resources. They can often be purpose and are not transferred technically incorporated into planning elsewhere. Provincial government and budgeting processes, and departments should provide quarterly institutionalised using existing updates on budget allocations received resources. and spent, to improve accountability. All  Gender-disaggregated data is critical budget data should be accessible to the to good budgeting for girls. There are public at all times. many data gaps on adolescent girls’  A budget analysis is a useful tool for needs within the education, health and starting conversations with key child protection sectors in Punjab. stakeholders. An analysis will provide Improved gender-disaggregated data information about gaps and and information can inform decisions opportunities that will underpin for developing, planning and concrete budget advocacy goals. It is implementing gender-responsive also a useful tool to convene budgets. This is key to meeting the stakeholders for discussion and needs of married and at-risk girls. decision-making about specific actions.

Girls Not Brides member organisation: Peace Foundation Pilot funding amount: US$4,766 province, the minimum age of marriage for girls and boys is 18, as defined by the Sindh A total of 18% of girls in Pakistan are Child Marriage Restraint Act. married before the age of 18 and almost 4% are married before 15.9 Child marriage is more prevalent in rural areas.10 Ending child In this project, Peace Foundation focused on marriage could see a 13% rise in earnings and ensuring financial resources were allocated productivity for Pakistani women who for the implementation of specific provisions married early.11 of the Child Marriage Restraint Under the Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929 (Amendment) Act 2016 and the Hindu the minimum legal age of marriage is 16 for Marriage Act 2017, including district-level girls and 18 for boys. In 2019, a Child monitoring committees. They also carried Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill was out budget advocacy for the funding of passed in the Pakistani Senate to increase Women’s Safe Houses at the district level in the minimum age of marriage for girls to 18 Sindh. They used three strategies in their years. Pakistan religious political parties budget advocacy: opposed the bill, claiming it to be against  Advocate and push for the establishment Islam, and recommended that it be sent to of district-level monitoring committees the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) before and ensure they can oversee the being discussed in the Senate. However, the implementation of existing legislation bill was passed by the Senate and awaits prohibiting child marriage in Sindh. debate in the National Assembly. These committees are currently non- Child marriage has become a provincial functional due to a lack of budget issue since many powers were decentralised allocation for their operation. Peace to the provinces and territories in 2010. The Foundation sensitised and mobilised Punjab Government has proposed a bill to community members, police and nikah amend the age of marriage from 16 to 18 registrars (who solemnise marriages), years (a bill introducing harsher penalties helping them understand their function for marriage before 16 has already been in addressing child marriage. adopted), and other provinces have  Advocate for Women's Safe Houses in all proposed similar amendments (Balochistan districts to have sufficient resources in and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). In Sindh

9 National Institute of Population Studies (NIPS) and ICF, 11 World Bank and International Center for Research on op. cit. Women, op. cit. 10 Ibid. 8

the 2019-20 provincial budget to assist and dissemination of this analysis child brides in accessing shelter, health provided a first opportunity for services and psychosocial and legal stakeholders to come together and support. consider budget allocation and resourcing for Women’s Safe Houses, Women’s  Support CSOs in conducting evidence- Police Stations and the role of the Sindh based budget advocacy using the Peace Child Protection Authority and District Foundation analysis, including advocacy Monitoring Committees. for funding district-level monitoring committees and Women’s Safe Houses.  Collective work and advocacy by Girls Not Brides members in Sindh has improved, and there is renewed  Planning and Development Division enthusiasm and engagement with diverse stakeholders on addressing  Ministry of Finance child marriage at the district level.  Ministry of Social Welfare This was demonstrated through the validation of the budget analysis – an  Child Protection Authority important step in securing buy-in from  Population Welfare Department stakeholders, and consensus over the credibility of the findings. This was  Commission on the Status of Women achieved through a fact-sharing and  Prison Department validation workshop with 74  UN Women provincial office stakeholders. Participants were diverse and comprised of children and  Parliamentarians adolescents from Sindh, 12 Girls Not  Police Government Brides member organisations, representatives from the Human Rights  Religious leaders (Muslim and non- Commission, Commission on the Status Muslim leaders who solemnise marriages) of Women, UN Women provincial office,  Union Council Secretaries (who keep Population Welfare Department, Women records of birth and marriage Development Department, Social Welfare registration) Department, Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal,  Twelve Girls Not Brides member Information Department, Agriculture organisations in Sindh Department, Education Department and Labour Department.

 Awareness of the gaps in resourcing  There is a larger evidence base for for the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint CSOs to advocate for Sindh provincial Act and Hindu Marriage Act has budget allocation for implementing increased. This is thanks to sharing the the Child Marriage Restraint Act and budget analysis with a diverse range of Hindu Marriage Act. Peace Foundation stakeholders. produced a report with budget allocation o Two hundred hard copies of the report recommendations for provincial officials were sent to key stakeholders in Sindh, to address child marriage. The validation

including the Chief Minister of Sindh, Minister for Finance, Interior Minister, Minster for Law and Parliamentary  A budget analysis and its Affairs, Speaker of Sindh Assembly, dissemination can help Girls Not Chief Secretary of Sindh, Secretary of Brides member organisations work Finance, Governor of Sindh, Leader of together and advocate collectively. Opposition in Sindh Assembly (Shehla The budget analysis, report and Raza), Minister for Women associated activities for sharing data – Development, and a Member of the such as the validation workshop and press National Assembly (Shamim Ara conference – helped to connect Peace Panhwar). Foundation with 12 other Girls Not Brides member organisations in Sindh, and o Five Girls Not Brides member resulted in them working collectively organisations hosted a press around a common advocacy objective. conference with the Karachi Press Club to share the budget analysis data with  Solid budget data helps CSOs conduct the media, including five television evidence-based budget advocacy, networks and 11 newspapers. The press which in turn helps governments conference resulted in nine news make evidence-based budget articles on the budget analysis. decisions to support girls and women. Concrete information on provincial  Key stakeholders are more aware of budgets and processes produced by the the impact of budget decisions on budget analysis helped Peace Foundation adolescent girls. Civil society pressure and other Girls Not Brides members and advocacy to government and conduct evidence-based budget advocacy. parliamentarians – to ensure the budget Knowing about the budget process, analysis findings are converted into action tracking and expenditure – and how best – has also demonstrably increased. Peace to influence the process at different Foundation helped form a pressure group points in the budget cycle – was useful for to influence government budget tracking and analysing existing budget allocations, and organised meetings with allocation and expenditure. It also helped CSOs and female Provincial Assembly to calculate estimates for the resources members to come together and work for needed to run District Monitoring

women’s rights in Sindh. Committees and Women’s Safe Houses.

PICTURED: A gender-responsive budgeting workshop run by Peace Foundation. Photo: Girls Not Brides/Peace Foundation

Girls Not Brides member organisation: Kenya Muslim Youth Development Organisation (KMYDO) Pilot funding amount: US$7,500  Influencing the costed annual work plan of the Department of Gender, Social A total of 23% of Kenyan girls are married Services, Culture and Sports and the 12 before the age of 18 and 4% before 15. Department of Youth Affairs to feed into Child marriage rates in the country vary the County Fiscal Strategy Paper across regions and among ethnic groups, and is most common in North Eastern  Prioritising child marriage in other Province (56%), followed by the Coast related planning and budget documents Province (41%) and Nyanza (32%).13  Supporting a pool of dedicated advocates Child marriage in Kenya is exacerbated by to promote budgets that address child poverty, level of education, natural disasters, marriage. This included facilitating conflict and displacement, other harmful budget advocacy meetings with the traditional practices such as female genital Ministry and County Assembly Budget mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), beading and Committee and influencing budget bride price, 14 adolescent pregnancy, and advocacy discussions during public poor awareness and enforcement of laws. 15 forums. The Marriage Act 2014 sets the minimum legal age of marriage at 18 years with no exceptions.16 The Gender Department and  Government officials involved in planning Anti-FGM Board within the Ministry of and budgeting processes of the Public Service, Youth and Gender led the Department of Gender, Social Services, development of a draft National Plan of Culture and Sports, Department of Youth Action on Child Marriage in 2016, but this is Affairs - County Government of Kilifi still under development.  Ministry of Planning

 Ministry of Health

In the Linda Mtoto project, KMYDO worked  County Assembly Budget Committee to increase the County Government of  Civil society organisations (CSO) Kilifi’s 2020-21 budget to address child marriage. They did this by:

12 Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, Demographic and 15 UNICEF, Situation Analysis of Children and Women in Health Survey 2014, 2015. Kenya 2017, 2018, 13 UNICEF, Situation Analysis of Children and Women in https://www.unicef.org/kenya/media/136/file/SITAN- Kenya 2017, 2018. 13 Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, report-2017-pdf.pdf Demographic and Health Survey 2014, 2015. 16 Marriage Act, 2014, https://data.unicef.org/wp- 14 UN CEDAW, Concluding observations on the eighth content/uploads/2017/12/The-MARRIAGE-ACT- periodic report of Kenya, 2017, p.5. 2014_Kenya.pdf 11

 Child marriage was prioritised in county budget and planning documents and the general attitudes and  Project orientation meetings were behaviours of government officials extremely important to sensitise towards adolescent girls and child stakeholders to the issue of child marriage has changed. This was due to marriage, its impacts and meetings and workshops with consequences, and to debunk myths government stakeholders to orient and and stereotypes related to the sensitise partners to the project aims; practice. This was particularly useful for workshops with ministry officials to government officials who may have been develop, peer review and finalise the hearing about child marriage for the first annual work plan; and budget advocacy time. They were also useful for meetings between ministries and the highlighting the links between child County Assembly Budget Committee. marriage and related issues for adolescent girls – such as adolescent pregnancy – in  Tangible costed budget lines to the county. The orientation meetings address child marriage were included were also critical for getting everyone on in the Kilifi County annual work plan board to ensure partnership and and will be submitted to the Ministry of collaboration from the beginning. Planning for inclusion in the County Fiscal Strategy Paper for the 2020-21  Shining a light on child marriage county budget. The two costed activity helps to raise its profile where it may lines on ending child marriage are: otherwise be invisible among wider child protection and gender issues. o County campaign on ending child KMYDO’s specific focus on child marriage (estimated cost: 7 million marriage increased the likelihood of it Kenya shillings, KSh). This will being addressed in the annual work plan. sensitise 10,500 girls, boys, women and It also highlighted the need for more men (100 per ward) to the effects of research and information on child child marriage in order to reduce the marriage in Kilifi County, evidenced by number of cases, and increase calls from within and outside government reporting and responses. for a study to highlight the prevalence o Development and dissemination of a and hotspots of the practice. county strategy to end child marriage  Linking child marriage to other issues (estimated cost: KSh7 million). This affecting adolescent girls (and vice will sensitise 7,500 girls, boys, men and versa) can open doors and increase women (100 per ward) to the strategy. awareness of the multi-sectoral nature of child marriage. Prior to the project, the Kilifi County Government had an adolescent pregnancy strategy that was not linked to any child marriage issues. By using data and human stories, KMYDO was able to make this link and the government realised they should be

looking at the two issues and strategies in a credible position to recommend the an interconnected way. prioritisation of different budgets to government.  CSOs can partner with government for budget advocacy success. It is important for CSOs to work “When engaging with a collaboratively and in partnership with controversial issue like this one government on a sensitive topic like child […] do not impose your views on marriage. what works best. Let it be more of  CSOs can link girls’ lived experiences a consultation and a collective to budgets. CSOs can share case studies and real-life examples of the effects of effort between government and budget decisions on girls, and can CSOs.” highlight the impacts to different KMYDO government sectors. This can put them in

Girls Not Brides member organisation: Réseau de Lutte contre la Traite des Enfants au Togo (RELUTET) on behalf of the Coalition pour la Fin du Mariage des Enfants au Togo (CFME-T) Pilot funding amount: US$9,951

A total of 22% of girls in Togo are married In this project, RELUTET strengthened child before the age of 18 and 6% are married protection outcomes in Togo through before 15.17 Child marriage in Togo is driven budget advocacy to end child marriage. They by level of education and poverty, and is implemented the project in the two linked to harmful traditional practices and communes of Est-Mono and Anié on behalf ideas of “family honour.” Forced marriage is of the CFME-T. RELUTET built on work the common in the northern part of Togo and coalition had already completed in seven the Vogan region.18 Virginity is highly valued communes, and focused on: and parents may marry their daughters early  Advocacy and capacity building for local for fear of them becoming pregnant. communal authorities to integrate child protection budget lines into communal Under the Code of the Child 2007, the budgets minimum legal age of marriage is 18 years. However, marriage at 16 is possible if there is  Promoting the agency of young people serious cause and judicial and parental and civil society in those communes to consent.19 In terms of policy frameworks, the gain knowledge of child rights-sensitive Togolese Ministries of Education, Gender budgeting and to hold local authorities and Health developed a National accountable with regards child Programme against Child Marriage and protection-related budget lines, including Teenage Pregnancy (2015-19), which focuses on child marriage .CFME-T worked with: on providing social protection to girls who  are married as children. Municipal authorities, mayors and elected officials RELUTET, Réseau des Organisations pour la Lutte contre la Maltraitance, l’Abus et  Child protection actors l’Exploitation Sexuelle des Enfants  Prefectural Children's Advisory Councils (ROMAESE), and the BorneFonden led the (the main body for strengthening the formation of a national coalition to end participation of children in monitoring child marriage (the CFME-T) in 2017. actions relating to children's rights in Togo)

17 Ministère de la Planification, du Développement et de consequences of a refusal, and the treatment by society and l’Aménagement du Territoire, Ministère de la Santé et ICF the government of women who refuse a forced marriage; International, Enquête démographique et de santé au Togo state protection and services, 2013. 2013-2014, 2015. 19 OECD Social Institutions & Gender Index, Togo, 2014. 18 Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Togo: Forced marriage, particularly in Lomé, including its prevalence, the 14

 Children and young people who are achieved through training for 20 young members of Prefectural Children's people from the Prefectural Children's Advisory Councils Advisory Councils (CCPEs, for its initials in French) – the main body for  Togo coalition civil society organisations strengthening children’s participation in (CSO) monitoring actions on child rights in Togo. This training helped strengthen knowledge and attitudes to child rights,  Municipal authorities and local and highlighted the importance of elected officials in two municipalities involving children's and young people's have greater knowledge of child organisations in actions to end child protection frameworks and have marriage and in developing and action plans for developing child- monitoring municipal budgets. sensitive budgets that address child marriage. This resulted from:  Collaboration between local municipal authorities and local o Training for 29 municipal authorities elected officials, child protection in Anié commune to build their actors, civil society and young people capacity to prepare municipal budgets is stronger. This collaboration has that address child marriage. continued beyond the life of the project, Participants included mayors and as shown in the follow-up support and municipal councillors responsible for monitoring meetings with municipal defining actions and budgets in their authorities, organised to ensure the respective territories. implementation of action plans and check o Training for 20 child protection actors in with and support child protection on budget advocacy to end child actors and members of CCPEs on their marriage. The training covered the respective action plans. municipal budget development process, responsibilities of child “The workshop allowed us not only to protection actors, and advocacy and budget monitoring techniques. know our role in the protection of the child – and especially in [addressing]  Municipal authorities and local elected child marriage – but also to have ideas officials committed to involving children and young people in budgetary on the stages of developing budgets.” decision-making processes. They Municipal authority representative demonstrated this by developing child- sensitive budgets through action plans.

 Civil society and young people can monitor and hold local municipal  “Quick wins” can be achieved in authorities accountable through budget budget advocacy over short monitoring and advocacy. They can also timespans. Three months is a short intervene more effectively in municipal duration for project implementation. budget development processes. This was While some quick wins are possible,

completing other tasks within this time process to effectively influence a frame can be challenging. More time may government’s budget decisions. be needed to align with the budget  Government authorities are more process, conduct a budget analysis, build likely to respond to child protection the capacity of different stakeholders, issues and child marriage when they ensure stakeholders understand child have a good understanding of the marriage, secure stakeholder problem, its impact on girls and their commitments and action plans, and role in addressing the issue. reflect on lessons learned with project partners.  Budget analysis is time-consuming for many CSOs, but is a necessary  Civil society can effectively monitor prerequisite for budget advocacy. It budgets and expenditure, but time is can sometimes be difficult to access the needed to build their capacity to do necessary budget documents for analysis this. Civil society has a critical role as and to identify budget lines that relate watchdogs in monitoring municipal directly or indirectly to preventing and budgets, but need more time and capacity responding to child marriage. building to better understand the budget process and when to intervene in that

PICTURED: Child Protection Actors Consultation Framework after training in sensitive budgeting. Photo: Girls Not Brides/RELUTET

Girls Not Brides member organisation: Observatorio de Mortalidad Materna en México (OMM) Pilot funding amount: US$9,304.43 System (SIPINNA) – to improve coordination between public, private and A total of 26% of women in Mexico are social sectors working to protect child and married or in a union before the age of 18 adolescent rights, as well as promote youth 20 and 4% before 15. Though rates of officially participation in the decision-making registered marriages have fallen in Mexico, process. The LGDNNA is assigned a budget more girls and adolescents are being pushed for child and adolescent care through Cross- into informal unions, which are four times cutting Annex 18 of the Federal Expenditure 21 more common than registered marriages. Budget. Mexico is a country of young people: nearly a third of its 113 million inhabitants is aged between 10 and 24.22 Almost 60% of those In this project, the OMM used their five-step aged 15 to 19 did not use contraception Public Policy Monitoring Model to analyse during their first sexual encounter and 60% the state- and municipal-level application of of adolescent pregnancies are planned.23 the LGDNNA’s federal budget and There are 7.3 million people who speak programmes. Through policy analysis and Indigenous languages,24 and rates of teenage fieldwork, they highlight the complexity of – pregnancy among them are higher than the and possibilities for – implementing public national average.25 policy in Chiapas, a state with a large youth Thanks to years of advocacy by civil and Indigenous population, and the highest organisations, children and adolescents are fertility rate in the country. They draw considered subjects of rights in the General particular attention to the importance of Law on Child and Adolescent Rights civil oversight and advocacy, and of (LGDNNA), which was enacted in 2014. This including child and adolescent voices in the law – and the Federal Civil Code – decision-making process. established 18 as the minimum age of The OMM’s specific objectives were to: marriage, without exception. It created diverse institutions – including the National  Investigate and analyse the budget Integrated Child and Adolescent Protection for the prevention of formal and

20 Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública y UNICEF México, 21 INSAD, Report on Early Unions Mexico: A National, State Encuesta Nacional de Niños, Niñas y Mujeres 2015 - and Regional Analysis, 2017. Encuesta de Indicadores Múltiples por Conglomerados 22 EIC, Inter-censual Survey, 2015, Mexico: INEGI 2015, Informe Final, 2016, https://mics-surveys- 23 ENADID, National Demographic Dynamics Survey, 2018. prod.s3.amazonaws.com/MICS5/Latin%20America%20an Mexico: INEGI d%20Caribbean/Mexico/2015/Final/Mexico%202015%20 24 INEGI, National Statistics and Geography Institute, 2015 MICS_Spanish.pdf 25 SINAC, Births Information Subsystem, 2019 17

informal early child/adolescent informal early unions, as a basis for unions in Chiapas advocacy.  Identify and analyse the perception of key actors (see below) in Chiapas  The OMM’s Public Policy Monitoring  Document the actions taken by Model is a simple, low-cost and municipal-level government to replicable methodology. The Model prevent early pregnancy and unions comprises five steps on how to monitor public policies, from policy definition and documentation to fieldwork,  Secretariats of Health, Education and reporting and advocacy. The method SIPINNA in Chiapas includes both quantitative and qualitative approaches, providing solid  Civil society organisations (CSO): the evidence to raise awareness and support Alliance for Health, Food and Nutrition the effective implementation of public in Chiapas (ASAN A.C.) and Melel policy. The Model is available with an Xojobal A.C. operative guide (in Spanish) and a

general guide (in Spanish and English).

 A final report promoting connected thinking about budget allocation and the implementation of public policies across the federal, state and municipal levels. The report provides evidence-based recommendations for policy (and budget) advocacy.

 Connection with key government actors and networks of CSOs working to promote and protect child and adolescent rights and share good practices at the state (Network for the Child and Adolescent Rights in Chiapas, REDIAS) and federal level (Network for Child Rights in Mexico, REDIM).

 Greater understanding of the challenges and opportunities for creating and implementing municipal SIPINNAs, PICTURED: The OMM Model for Public Policy Monitoring. particularly in rural areas and in Photo: Girls Not Brides/OMM collaboration with local and Indigenous authorities.

 Clear identification of the lack of strategies for the reduction of formal and

and how they relate to decisions “The SIPINNA budget should go made at the federal level; and make straight to the municipality, because alignment with local development that’s where the children and plans visible. adolescents are […] though even the o Budget advocacy to increase and state doesn’t have resources.” decentralise funding: advocate for overall increases in the funds TGC, former member of the Chiapas SIPINNA allocated to protecting child and executive secretariat adolescent rights; and promote the use of subsidies to draw down funds

 Civil society can use budget analyses to the state and municipal level. to oversee implementation at the  Local implementation bodies can local level and push for progressive protect child and adolescent rights, federal budget allocations to protect even if they lack the budget or legal child and adolescent rights. The OMM power for direct action. States and budget analysis revealed a reduction in municipalities do not receive financial the proportion of government funding resources from the SIPINNA budget and going to the SIPINNA in 2019. It also municipal SIPINNA staff responsibilities showed that, in the same year, the entire and obligations are not legally defined SIPINNA budget was spent at the federal and therefore unevenly implemented. level, mostly on personnel (almost 70%). However, the OMM found that state and Meanwhile, the municipal president of municipal SIPINNAs can coordinate San Cristóbal de Las Casas donated 50% responses and calls to action, forming of her salary to cover local SIPINNA staff working groups to contribute expertise and coordination costs. This case and avoid duplication. Municipal highlights three areas for civil society SIPINNAs and CSOs can also promote attention: data collection by other government o Use of federal budget analysis and bodies – such as sex and age oversight to: ensure funds are fully executed and secured for subsequent years; and identify relative reductions “[…] the prosecutor’s office in federal funding and advocate for shouldn’t work alone, so we equivalent and progressive spending formed a working group including to protect child and adolescent the municipal police, civil rights. defence, and the two public o Transparency in federal budget prosecutor’s offices [including the allocation and its impact on local implementation: demand the Indigenous justice prosecutor].” publication of expenses, Member of the Chiapas SIPINNA executive achievements, and the methodology secretariat and former director of the used to distribute budgets at the SCLC municipal SIPINNA federal level; highlight local solutions

disaggregated data and child and  Budgets need to be allocated to adolescent surveys – and can incorporate raising awareness and training those them into evidence-based strategies to responsible for the implementation protect child and adolescent rights. of public policy. Legally establishing implementation bodies is not enough;  Civil society can ensure oversight their personnel also needs information meetings are held and that the and training on their responsibilities and context-specific issues affecting functions. Setting out the powers and children and adolescents are obligations of municipal-level public included on the agenda. Two examples officials in law also provides a guide that of civil society action identified by OMM can be adapted to local contexts. are:  Civil society requests for information o Creating spaces for dialogue beyond at the municipal level can catalyse official meetings – and promoting a action and raise awareness of the vision of young people as subjects of functions and importance of rights capable of proposing solutions implementing public policy. – to influence the agenda on public policy implementation. “[…] Someone requested o Advocacy for migration and Indigenous childhood to be explicitly information […] and the considered in the Chiapas state Law municipalities woke up, they called on Child and Adolescent Rights. us, because they had to respond […] Migration surveys were carried out to thank goodness for the person who inform subsequent programmes. Childhood and adolescence surveys made the information request, in general help raise awareness and because we never had that impact, inform strategies that respond to even though we signed the local contexts. documents.”

Former member of the Chiapas SIPINNA “We work hard on the participation of executive secretariat children and adolescents, it’s been hard but we’re getting it in the system.  CSOs can bring municipal officials [We engage in] political dialogue together to share strategies and good behind the scenes, because during the practices across states. Expanding system sessions you go and approve networks to include CSOs and public guidelines, but there’s no space for officials working to implement and monitor public policy at all levels deliberation.” promotes dialogue and the creation of Melel Xojobal A.C. locally-appropriate action plans to protect child and adolescent rights across a region.

 Indigenous authorities should be seen community positions; the exchange of as partners in the implementation money, labour and gifts when a daughter and monitoring of public policy to is married; and patrilocal residence protect child and adolescent rights. patterns may all incentivise early Understanding the complex interrelation marriage and pregnancy in Indigenous between indigeneity, marriage, sexuality, communities. Indigenous adolescents adulthood and migration can help create migrating to urban areas may be able to effective strategies. During their reassess their priorities, but are also those background research and fieldwork, the most vulnerable to early pregnancy. OMM found that the greater frequency of These local specificities must be civil unions over formal marriage; the considered when planning and taboo around contraception and sexual implementing public policy to protect relations outside of formal unions; child and adolescent rights. marriage as a rite of passage for holding