What comes to mind when you hear the words ‘climate change’? Fires. Floods. Poor harvests. Melting polar ice caps. You probably aren’t thinking about girls around the globe, especially the millions at risk of child marriage. In this unsettling talk, CEO of Girls Not Brides, Dr Faith Mwangi-Powell, reveals the devastating link between climate change and girl-child marriage. With 12 million girls under 18 married each year, Faith explains the rate of child marriage increases in humanitarian settings: be it conflicts, pandemics or, as she is seeing now, the crises caused by climate change.
Whilst listening to her talk alone, 276 girls somewhere in the world have been married and this is only going to increase with climate change’s growing impacts. But we can’t lose hope, Faith says. Rather, it’s time for the climate change and end-child-marriage movements to unite. As natural allies, we must urgently create climate change solutions that have girls at their heart. Dr Faith Mwangi-Powell is the CEO of Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage – the only global partnership uniquely entirely focused on building a worldwide movement to end child marriage. She has over 20 years of experience in managing complex public health programs and worked previously at the African Palliative Care Association and The Girl Generation. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
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