The implementation of the community-based child protection approach focused on the
importance of community participation (families, parents, children, members of the
community) in the protection of the child in the light of the fundamental roles that their
members play in social and community life;
The incorporation of positive community-based traditional social and cultural standards in the
definition of child protection strategies and approaches;
The mobilization and empowerment of communities around issues of child protection;
The building of capacity and development of knowledge of communities to ensure that they
are able to develop mechanisms and appropriate approaches, both in the area of prevention and
inclusion of violence and abuses against children, including child marriages;
Lobbying among authorities, social leaders and policy makers at the local level for the
inclusion of child protection issues in local development policies and strategies;
The adoption of a National Strategic Plan to end child marriages in Niger 2019-2021. This
plan comprises of 4 pillars of intervention, namely: empower girls with skills and support
networks, ensure the capacity building of parents and members of the community, improve
access and quality protection education services and other social services for girls, establish
new platforms for social dialogue which will lead to collective abandonment;
The holding in June 2019, of a national child marriages forum in Niger at Maradi under the
auspices of the Mediator of the Republic in order to strengthen the synergy of action between
community partners and the Government to act effectively towards the elimination of child
marriages in Niger.
547. Both qualitative and quantitative results were obtained, in particular:
Commitment of the regional and local authorities to get involved in the fight against child
marriages;
Establish community (village) protection committees;
Development of action plans by the villages concerned with the approach;
Organization through steps by the committees leading to the deliberate annulment by the
population, villages where marriages of girls between 12 and 14 are annulled;
2490 children taken care of including 131 cases of child marriages were cancelled or
postponed in 2017;
Presentation of public statements of abandonment of harmful practices affecting children
including child marriages by 444 villages;
Participation of 15 108 women and adolescents in an educational dialogue programme;
Commitment of 544 villages, or 4% of administrative villages of Niger to work towards the
promotion and protection of the rights of children;
Implementation of the restructuring process of social action services with the establishment of
Social Prevention, Promotion and Protection Centres;
52 protection departments are operational, managed by hundreds of social workers and
providing care services to children who are victims of violent abuses and exploitation
including child marriages;
1467 children were catered for by protection services including 138 cases of threats or early
marriages in 2016;
2516 children were catered for by protection agencies including 222 cases of threats or early
marriages in 2017;
Continuation of the Adolescents’ Initiative of Niger “ILLIMIN” which also aims at reducing
child marriages and delaying early pregnancies among adolescents aged between 10- and 19years school drop-outs, illiterate, married and unmarried girls.
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