The AUC Community of Practice / Knowledge Portal On Ending Child Marriage
Scaling up continental efforts for the AU Campaign to End Child Marriage requires that we have systems for capturing learning and transferring that learning across multiple member states or in-country sectors. Incorporating knowledge management principles and approaches in child protection work enhances its impact by more efficiently and effectively collecting and sharing knowledge about what changes and practices result in improved child protection practices and service delivery against Child Marriage. It’s against this background that the AUC formulated the Ending Child Marriage Campaign Community of Practice/ Knowledge Portal and formal frameworks including the child participation guidelines and platform, the knowledge management strategy, the advocacy and communications strategy and the child safeguarding strategies.
Mission of the AUC Community of Practice / knowledge Portal
Empowering African Union member states and partners to collectively end child marriage and eliminate harmful practices through a dynamic and interactive knowledge management portal, fostering collaboration, sharing best practices, and providing technical assistance.
Key to the success of these continental consultative meetings was the presence and engagement of girls, boys and women in shaping discussions about them, voicing their perspectives, aspirations and expectations from the leaders and stakeholders in attendance, and committing to end harmful traditional practices.
Mission of the AUC Community of Practice / knowledge Portal
Vision
Key Objectives
Professional Development and Research Sharing
Serve as a hub for sharing professional development opportunities, relevant research findings, and reports. By disseminating up-to-date information, the community aims to enhance the expertise of its members and promote evidence-based decision-making in the campaign against child marriage
Current Achievements
inar allowed frontline reporters to share their experiences and best practices in using their voices to highlight child marriage and FGM where they occur and hold all parties accountable. The webinar was a strong preamble to the 2nd Media training on reporting sensitively on harmful practices for West, Central and Northern African countries- which was held in Addis Ababa from 1-3 August 2023.and young people, enabling them to share their experiences, practices, and knowledge. By harnessing evidence from programs, this platform seeks to accelerate efforts to put an end to child marriage and FGM, two harmful practices that adversely affect children’s lives. With the highest rates of child marriage and FGM prevalent across the African continent, this webinar will bring together over 150 child participants from 11 member states countries.
The AU Campaign to End Child Marriage Community of Practice Launch: On the 19th of April 2022, the AUC launched the Community of Practice to for the Campaign to End Child Marriage. The event which attracted over 150 online stakeholders engaged participants in an interactive discussion that expounded on the CoP’s core role in facilitating knowledge exchange, data, innovation and evidence, best practices and lessons learned sharing on Ending Child Marriage across the continent. Speakers included UNICEF, UNFPA, USAID high level officials and representatives of religious and traditional institutions. The CoP launch laid the foundation for the launch of the Child Participation platform and a series of webinars that engaged key stakeholders including media practitioners.