Raj Kumar Mahato - Founder and Chairperson of BHORE - DFID Girl Summit 2014

"Child marriage is...a major barrier to the socio-economic transformation of Nepal." - Raj Kumar Mahato

Panel Discussion: Spotlight on Progress - "It's Everyone's Business: Strong and Comprehensive National Responses to Child, Early and Forced Marriage"

Context: This is one of the 14 "Spotlights on Progress" video-recorded sessions from the Girl Summit 2014, London, United Kingdom (UK). The sessions were organised to share "best practices" developed by practitioners, grassroots activists, and ministers of state who are working to address female genital mutilation (FGM) and child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM). The Girl Summit is a project of the United Kingdom (UK)'s Department for International Development (DFID).

Profile of speaker: One of the panelists of this series of Spotlight sessions was Raj Kumar Mahato, a public health professional with over 12 years' experience in health and nutrition programmes. He is currently Programme Manager - Health & Nutrition, Nepal Country Program Save the Children International. In addition, Raj Kumar founded and is the current chairperson of BHORE, a campaign- and research-focused philanthropic organisation working to contribute to building a prosperous Nepal. Raj's work involves interacting with and lobbying stakeholders from sectors including political leaders, community-based organisations, and the media to raise awareness on international agreements, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and United Nations Security Resolutions 1325 and 1820 on women, peace, and security.

Strategy overview: In his presentation "Multi-sectoral Togetherness Towards a Social and Economic Change: a national campaign for child marriage and dowry eradication, Nepal", which can be viewed in the video below, Raj Kumar Mahato spoke about facilitating a national campaign for eradication of child marriage and of dowry in Nepal. He discussed the importance of mobilising adolescents and youths for sustainable change. He also spoke to the importance of Child Marriage Eradication Committees to ensure sustainable responses to end the practice of child marriage.

Specifically, the Child Marriage and Dowry Eradication National Campaign (CMDENC), Nepal, is a people's movement that has brought together a national conference on eradicating child marriage and dowry that resulted in the establishment of a federation of more organisations working on these issues. According to Raj Kumar Mahato, "[t]here is now a significant increase in media interest in the issue, the government is developing a national strategy on child marriage with the support of UNICEF [the United Nations Children's Fund] and others, and BHORE are lobbying for the inclusion of child marriage in the new constitution which is currently being drafted." The campaign draws on:

• Advocacy for policy formulation and implementation
• Social norms change
• Youth activist and role model demonstration
• Engagement of multi-sectoral stakeholders and civil society
• Research and documentation

In 2005, Raj Kumar launched this campaign in order to bring the agenda of child marriage and dowry to the national level, advocating the Government of Nepal and stakeholders to develop and financially support a national strategy to end child marriage and eradicate the use of the dowry, which he considers to be among the root causes of disempowerment, conflict, and injustice towards women and girls.

Overview of this Summit Session: "This Spotlight provides the opportunity to learn from a number of countries on their experiences of joined-up approaches to tackle child, early and forced marriage at scale - including the main challenges they faced and effective actions that helped bring success.

The session is opened by Rob Swartbol, Director-General for International Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Netherlands. The speakers, in order of appearance, are:
Hon. Minister Zenebu Tadesse Woldetsadik Minister of Women, Children and Youth Affairs, Government of Ethiopia
Patricia Bah National Coordinator for the Teenage Pregnancy Secretariat, Government of Sierra Leone
Raj Kumar Mahato Chairperson, BHORE
Laura Laski Chief of Sexual and Reproductive Health, UNFPA

The session is moderated by Rajesh Mirchandani, World Affairs Correspondent and Anchor, BBC News."

Footage of this (available below) and other "Spotlights" are available on DFID's YouTube channel.

The Girl Summit is a project of DFID. Click here and scroll down to see the full list of individuals and organisations committed to working on girls' issues, as well as a list of Girl Summit Charter signatories.