Despite youth in Malawi continue to suffer lack of employment, prevalent school fees hiking, President Peter Mutharika on Monday asked fellow leaders to invest in the education of young people in ending the poverty in Africa.
Speaking at United Nations General Assembly ( UNGA), Labouisse Hall, Unicef House in New York, USA, President Mutharika described as investing in education cannot frustrate an effort to eliminate child marriages in Africa by 2030.
“Investing in the human capital is one of the surest means of breaking the poverty cycle. In short, we are talking about investing in the education of young people,” Mutharika said.
According to Mutharika, only hindrances in education are early and child marriages, he depicted it as one of the major challenges threatening the future of young people.
“Early marriage is a barrier to girls’ education in Africa. All over the continent, early marriages shatter dreams of mothers and fathers in every community.
“Unless we protect and prepare our young people against child early marriage, the resources we invest in education will always be like rain that falls on fields that cannot bear fruits,” he said.
President Mutharika said Malawi is implementing a number of legal frameworks in eradicating the problem of early marriages.
The Gender Equality Act (2013); Child Care, Protection and Justice Act (2010) Trafficking in Persons Act (2015) and the Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Act (2015) are some of the blueprints the Malawi is using to eradicate eliminate child marriages.
But the amendment and harmonization of provisions in the Constitution on Child Age and Marriage Age to 18 years has billed as a game changer.
Since 2015, the prevalence of child marriages has declined from 52 per cent to 46 percent in 2016, according to the state president.
