Expanding our Reach: Girls First Fund’s Inaugural Mission to Guinea
Our Journey in Guinea Begins...
Girls First Fund (GFF) is launching operations in Guinea and Guatemala this year, in line with plans to expand our work to support more community-based organizations to end child marriage.
This August, our Fund Director Fanta Touré-Puri and Program Director Lakshmi Moore completed our first mission to Guinea as we prepare to launch our strategy in the country. The duo was supported by our newly recruited country Program Advisor, Lydie Tonguino, who will coordinate our work in Guinea.
During this visit, the GFF team connected with representatives of the government of Guinea, technical and financial partners, and civil society organizations in the country, especially women and girl-led associations. The team had the opportunity to introduce GFF and our work, learn about the work of the various stakeholders, and explore opportunities for collaboration to advance efforts to protect girls in the country and support them to build the futures they want.
Engaging Government As Key Stakeholder
In a meeting with the Minister for the Promotion of Women, Children and Vulnerable Persons and the National Director of Children, we were encouraged by the knowledge that Guinea has a national strategy to end child marriage, with a strong framework to support the aim of reducing child marriage rates by 20 percentage points in the next 10 years. However, low resourcing, poverty, social norms and other factors have hindered its successful implementation.
The Minister Aicha Nanette Conte said “We thank Girls First Fund for choosing our country to expand its interventions to contribute to ending child marriage. The country already has a National Strategic Plan 2021 to 2025 to promote the abandonment of child marriage in Guinea. We also have qualified resource persons who can support this work. We welcome all support to accelerate our efforts to reduce the current rate of child marriage, which is an estimated 47% of girls getting married before they turn 18.”
Learning From Civil Society and Community-Based Organizations
In a separate engagement, the GFF team met with community-based, national and international organizations including UNICEF, UNFPA, Plan International, ENABEL and CRS. The conversations focused on the key drivers, trends, challenges and opportunities for ending child marriage in Guinea. Stakeholders expressed their openness to collaborate with GFF and support the government's efforts to end child marriage in the country.
In addition, we held a one-day consultation meeting with women-led organizations, including young women activists working on child marriage and related gender justice programming in Guinea. The discussions centered on the gains, ongoing challenges, gaps, and opportunities for child marriage interventions in the country. As we sat with the 13 civil society organizations and activists, we were encouraged by the very active dialogue among different generations of women activists. Their commitment to ending child marriage in a context where it is highly normalized was palpable.
A consistent narrative among the activists was the recognition that ending child marriage was critical for advancing gender equality in Guinea. While the country’s political transition doesn’t seem to interfere with work on the ground, it was clear that GFF’s partnership is a timely opportunity to accelerate progress in communities to align with the current political will to end child marriage.
These engagements provided insights on the key issues that our work can address in Guinea, especially in relation to our core mandate of providing funding, mentorship and accompaniment to community-based organizations.
An exciting future awaits
Speaking at the end of the visit, GFF Director Fanta Touré-Puri said, “There is a momentum towards de-normalizing gender-based violence in Guinea. The voice of young people, particularly young women, who are demanding a better future is loud and clear. This cannot be ignored, in a context where a significant percentage of the population is under 18. We are eager to contribute to ongoing efforts to help communities pursue better alternatives to early marriage.”
Over the next weeks, our Program Advisor in Guinea will continue to meet with other partners and communities to explore opportunities for future collaboration and the support of the key partners and stakeholders. These discussions will support GFF in developing our country strategy and the geographic scope of our engagement in Guinea. The strategy is set to be launched by October this year.
Related resource
Do you want to learn more about child marriage in Guinea? We recommend this journal article by Yvette Efevbera and Paul Farmer: ‘It is this which is normal’ A qualitative study on girl child marriage and health in conakry, Guinea