N.C.F.C. Uses MICS to Address Child Marriage

Margaret Nicholas

The survey has also provided key data to assist the National Committee for Families and Children as they address child marriage and early unions in Belize.  Surprisingly, in 2011, teenagers between fifteen and nineteen years old were still getting married.  That information, according to Executive Director Margaret Nicholas, was used to create a roadmap to end child marriage and early unions.

Margaret Nicholas, Executive Director, National Committee for Families and Children

“When we looked at the 2011 data, we noted that a number of young persons were actually married before the age of eighteen.  In fact, they were between the ages of fifteen and nineteen.  And then when we looked at the 2015 data, that even added more information in terms of the evidence that we needed to proceed to accelerate actions to develop the roadmap.  And so, with the data from MICS and of course with the support of UNICEF and UNFPA, we were then able to conduct, firstly in 2018, a two-day workshop where we were able to gather people and to really and truly share the data with them in terms of what MICS was showing and that in fact we were talking from an evidence-based perspective.”