Supporting Communities in ending Child Marriage

February 9, 2022

Why Women’s Rights?

At ActionAid, we provide long-term support to women living in poverty so that they will be able to realise their rights and overcome the challenges that they face. The majority of those who live in poverty are women, which makes them more vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse, and in some cases, Child Marriage. At some point in their lives, 1 in 3 women around the world experience violence, with six women being killed every hour by men, who they very often know. ActionAid’s Women’s Rights Programme works on changing the opinions, attitudes and ultimately behaviours of communities so that women and girls can live their lives safe from discrimination, oppression and abuse. The Programme is funded by Irish Aid, the Irish Government’s programme for overseas development aid, and operates in communities in three countries, Ethiopia, Kenya and Nepal.

In particular, the programme focuses on “hard to reach women” or the women who are most marginalised in their communities.

The main aim of the Women’s Rights Programme is to empower these women, make their communities physically safer for them and ensure their economic security. This includes supporting women in preventing and responding to Gender Based Violence, improving their financial lives, and advocating for their rights at a local and national level, so that they can bring positive and sustainable change to their communities.

Root causes of poverty and inequality

Poverty rose in 2020 for the first time in 20 years. This can be attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the impact climate change and conflict are having on communities around the world. Because of the pandemic, around 100 million additional people are living in poverty globally. The Gender Wage Gap is quite significant, and globally, women on average earn at least 24% less than men. The rate of domestic violence has also increased in many countries since the beginning of the pandemic. For example, France has seen an increase of 30% of reports of domestic violence, and Argentina has seen an increase of 25%. Programmes designed to improve the lives of women are more essential than ever to lift women out of poverty, and to empower them with the skills that they need. Also, in times in crisis, the ones who feel the brunt of this the most, are women.

Behaviour Change Approach

Over time, the programmes have evolved and changed, adapting to the needs of the communities that we work with. The ‘Behaviour Change’ approach is used in the Women’s Rights Programme. This approach aims to better analyse and understand what drives behaviour so that we can intervene to change behaviours that have a negative impact. Adopting the Behaviour Change Model has given us a deeper understanding of what causes people to behave in the way they do. It ultimately helps us to change people’s attitudes towards issues impacting women and girls, such as Child Marriage and Female Genital Mutilation. By going to the root causes of what motivates people, looking at their opportunities and capabilities to change, we can have a long-lasting impact on the future and lives of many women and girls.

Benefits of Women’s Rights Programme

There have been many people who have personally benefitted from partaking in ActionAid’s Women’s Rights Programme. One woman whose life was forever changed by the Women’s Rights Programme is Sandya.

Sandya lives in Nepal with her mother and father. Where they live, the female literacy rate is quite low, and a large proportion of the local population are children, because of girls getting married and becoming pregnant young. Sandya joined the Girl’s Group in her area, and her mother joined the Women’s Group. These were organized by the Samunnati Project through the Divya Yuva Club and ActionAid Nepal. By attending the Girl’s Group, Sandya learned skills to enable her to stand up against Child Marriage, and the impacts getting married young would have on her physical and mental health. She can now continue with her education, which she very much loves. As she says, ‘I am now able to speak out loud against child marriage.’ The programmes were based on the principle of Behaviour Change and focused on the safety and economic empowerment of women and girls. The causes of child marriage were also examined, and discussions were held on the high dropout rate of girls in schools.

Following these discussions, Sandya and her mother both decided to speak with Sandya’s father. Ast first he was resistant to what they had to say to him. But after he joined the Men’s Group, his mind and opinions changed. He now is against Child Marriage, and Sandya is continuing with her education.

The Women’s Rights Programme is vital in achieving Gender Equality

By addressing and getting to the root of discriminatory and sexist behaviour, it is possible that the oppressive structures that hold up the patriarchy can be shaken, and the goal of achieving Gender Equality can appear a reality. With the Women’s Rights Programme continuing to educate and empower communities, hopefully women and girls will be able to achieve their hopes and aspirations and be free to live their lives whichever way they choose.

Photo credit: Sandya with her mother (ActionAid Nepal)

Protestors at COP 28 in Dubai. Photo: Konrad Skotnicki.

Belfast Climate Change March, 2019. Photo: Trócaire.

The Profit Driving the Crisis

Despite their overwhelming contribution to global emissions, fossil fuel companies continue to attract significant financial backing—driven by their enduring profitability. This is starkly illustrated by the case of ExxonMobil, the top fossil fuel investment held by asset managers based in Ireland. In 2023, ExxonMobil reported €33.63 billion ($36 billion) in profit. That is almost twice the GDP of Botswana (€18.1 billion) and nearly three times Namibia’s GDP (€11.5 billion).

Ireland plays a hugely disproportionate role in facilitating investments into fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil. In 2023, the investments made into fossil fuel companies by investment managers based in Ireland generated an estimated 72.5 million tons of CO2e. This is more than the CO2e emissions for the entire country of Ireland—and more than ten times that generated by Sierra Leone.

The Global Human Impact

The climate crisis is here, now, and it is causing disproportionate harm in the Global South. In Bangladesh, rising sea levels and increasingly severe cyclones are displacing coastal communities, with projections indicating that 17% of the entire country could be underwater by 2050. The legally binding Paris Agreement on climate change explicitly acknowledges the importance of tackling private finance. Its three overarching goals are: keeping below 1.5C of warming; increasing adaptation and making finance flows consistent with low emissions and resilience.

This gives a clear mandate for action: both tax reform and corporate regulation are needed to tackle financial flows, and both nationally in Ireland and at EU level, ‘polluter pays’ taxes are lacking and regulation of the financial sector remains weak and fragmented. While EU regulation exists, it is designed more to nudge investors toward more sustainable investment practices by increasing transparency and reporting levels than to enforce strict standards. And it is moving in the wrong direction: the recently passed EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive excluded investments; and now the EU Commission’s Omnibus legislative proposal threatens to undo the limited gains made on climate plans, as well as blocking future attempts for stronger action at national level.

The Risk of Inaction

Fossil fuel investment is too profitable to remain weakly regulated. If Ireland continues with its current strategy of encouraging FDI at all costs, and relying on weak EU regulation, we are headed for catastrophe. The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change has repeatedly warned that every fraction of a degree beyond 1.5°C brings irreversible consequences: collapsed ice sheets, vanishing coral reefs, and extreme weather events that will make vast regions of the planet uninhabitable. And yet, companies are developing oil and gas fields that could push global warming beyond 2°C.

Our research found that 91% of the investments made into fossil fuel companies by investment managers based in Ireland were to companies that have plans for fossil fuel expansion like these. Ireland cannot afford inaction on this issue.

About This Research

The figures in this report regarding investment from Ireland are based on new research commissioned by ActionAid Ireland and Trócaire. In the paper, we uncover the scale of fossil fuel investment through Ireland, who the investors are, and in which fossil fuel companies they are investing. We analyse the current regulatory framework and explain why it is inadequate—and moving in the wrong direction. And we make specific recommendations for change, which are summarised below.

Summary of Recommendations

Regulate the private financial sector
Ireland must end its outsized role as an enabler of destructive fossil fuel investment. Ireland should introduce a strong gender-responsive national human rights and environmental due diligence framework which includes the regulation of investors with respect to human rights and the environment and climate. The transposition of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive could achieve this if downstream activities are included and the Omnibus proposal is rejected. Ireland should prohibit investments in fossil fuel expansion and require investors to implement climate transition plans consistent with a 1.5°C climate limit.

Endorse the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty
Ireland should endorse developing a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to curb fossil fuel expansion and commit to a fair and funded phase out of fossil fuels.

Support tax justice
Ireland should support bold and fair new global tax rules through the UN Framework Convention on Tax, should adopt all OECD BEPS measures, and should conduct an updated and comprehensive spillover analysis of its tax policy. Ireland should take coordinated action globally, at the EU level and domestically to introduce a range of new taxes to mobilise finance needed for climate justice, based on ‘polluter pays’ and social equity principles such as wealth taxes for the highest earners, climate damages tax on investors, fossil fuel production taxes and levies on aviation and shipping.

Finance a just transition
Ireland must also meet its fair share climate finance obligations under Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement, and pay our ecological debt to the Global South. Ireland should support conditionality-free debt cancellation for countries on the front lines of the climate crisis, commit to a new UN Framework Convention on Sovereign Debt, moving debt negotiations from the IMF to the UN, and to a debt workout mechanism that is fully representative and fair.