Mutharika says every child must be given empowerment and wings of hope to fly very high

Malawi’s President Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika has  called on fellow leaders to invest in the education of young people in ending the circle of poverty in Africa.

President Mutharika made the call on Monday at Labouisse Hall, Unicef House in New York, USA during a side event on accelerating efforts 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.

However, Mutharika reminded the leadership in Africa that investing in education is not enough if young people are not protected from other forces that threaten their education.

President Mutharika cited early and child marriages as some 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 arresting 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 child marriages.

But the amendment and harmonization of provisions in the Constitution on Child Age and Marriage Age to 18 years has been billed as a game changer.

Since 2015, the prevalence of child marriages has declined from 52 percent to 46 percent in 2016, according to the Malawi leader.