Jemma Nunu Kumba, the first female speaker of R-TNLA, during an exclusive interview with Eye Radio - credit | Lou Nelson/Eye Radio | Jan 28, 2022

The speaker of the unity parliament has vowed to prioritize women and girls’ empowerment and enact laws to protect them from early marriages and dropping out from schools.

South Sudan is one of the countries with deeply entrenched cultural practices and social norms linked to gender.

Recently, the government and partners found at least 38 cases of child marriage registered in Northern Bhar El Ghazal alone.

According to a report 52 per cent of girls were married before 18 years of age, depriving them of their basic rights and for some, even losing their lives.

South Sudan’s Gender Ministry said only 6.2% of girls in South Sudan complete primary school, with one out of five dropping out of secondary school due to pregnancy.

According to the UN children agency- UNICEF, Child marriage is fueled by poverty. Girls are married off early for the family to collect dowry.

Low levels of education and lack of knowledge about the harm caused by early marriage further exacerbates the situation.

Low levels of education and lack of knowledge about the harm caused by early marriage further exacerbates the situation.

In the 2020 Certificate of Primary Education Examination results, girls performed better than boys.

General performance improved by about 13 percent compared to 2019 and performance rate increased from 87.7 percent to 89.9 percent.

Speaking to Eye Radio in an exclusive interview, Jemma Nunu Kumba encouraged women and girls to first finish their higher education levels before getting married.

She said, when educated, women and girls can play a greater role in governance, economy, service delivery, disaster risk reduction, access to justice and rule of law, peace building and reconciliation, among others.

“I will try my best to work to their [women, girls] expectation and avail myself for mentoring and guidance to young girls and encourage them to be serious about school. Suspend early marriages and concentrate on your schools so that you can go to the highest,” Nunu said.

“They have to finish their secondary schools, they have to go to universities and beyond. So education is key.

“I will also work closely with the institutions of education and the civil society, the Churches because we need the support of everybody for the girl child. I will also make sure that the policies and the laws we have are really in support of gender and women empowerment.”

According to an estimate by UNICEF, more than 650 million women alive today were married off before the age of 18.

To tackle this, it earlier said, the government together with other partners are working to implement the strategic National Action plan to end child marriage by 2030.