COMMUNITY development officers across the country need to make effective use of research findings on cultural practices and adopt modern strategies to tackle the challenge of child marriages.

Dr Nandera Mhando, the commissioner for social welfare, made the call at the launch of the research for empowering positive change in cultural practices to address child marriages, abbreviated as RE-EMPOWER project.

She said the government recognizes the contribution of stakeholders in helping the country overcome child marriages, a challenge exacerbated by climate change and rooted in harmful traditional practices.

These drawbacks can instead be used as opportunities for educating communities, such that the project seeks to address social, economic and environmental factors identified as drivers of child marriage, she stated.

Arguing for preserving positive cultural practices that strengthen communities, she affirmed that taking up the project creates space to engage communities directly in tackling child marriages, as conducting the research will provide scientific evidence enabling government and stakeholders formulate policies and strategies impacting on communities.

“I urge all stakeholders to fully participate in this research in order to obtain accurate solutions to the challenge of child marriages,” the commissioner appealed, while Prof. Allen Mushi, the Mzumbe University acting vice chancellor, said the RE-EMPOWER project is well aligned with the motto, “learning for people’s development., 

It seeks to resolve real challenges through research that generates knowledge and practical policy solutions, he stated, in remarks elaborated by Dr Seraphina Bakta, the Law faculty dean at the institution.

She explained that the five-year project will address child marriage problems linked to behaviour and environmental factor in an extensive collaboration with scholars from the University of Antwerp in Belgium.

The two institutions are forming a partnership to conduct research aimed at fostering positive change in cultural practices as a way of addressing child marriages, the law don stated, who also serves as the project coordinator.

The initiative will help inform initiatives to remove harmful traditions by persuasion and productive engagement for more positive, community-friendly practices in the fight against child marriages, she said.

Prof. Wouter Vandenhole from the University of Antwerp said for his part that the collaboration would support communities in tackling the challenge through evidence-based research and education, at the campus ceremony attended by a wide range of stakeholders, including social welfare experts, members of academia, priests and public administrators.