By Michael Gwarisa
What began as a youth-led campaign in one province is increasingly evolving into a national movement reshaping how traditional leaders respond to child marriage across Zimbabwe.
From roadside billboards carrying anti-child marriage messages to new village by-laws, and strengthened accountability systems, chiefs say the Not In My Village campaign is shifting attitudes in communities where child marriage has long been normalised.
Launched in Mashonaland Central in 2024, the campaign has since expanded to other provinces, with traditional leaders adapting its message to local contexts while holding onto a central principle: child marriage has no place in their villages.
For provinces such as Mashonaland Central, the campaign arrived at a critical moment. Data from the 2022 Population and Housing Census show the province records the highest prevalence of child marriage in Zimbabwe, with estimates indicating that between 50 and 52 percent of girls are married before the age of 18.
Traditional leaders say these figures forced them to move beyond awareness campaigns and toward enforcement and community regulation.
Chief Chisunga of Mbire said chiefs across the province agreed to strengthen local governance structures through by-laws that place village heads at the centre of preventing child marriages.
“The campaign is effective. As chiefs, we sat down and discussed these issues because our problems were the same. One of the pacts we made was that we could not do this alone and needed to work with our village heads to ensure we weed this problem out,” he told HealthTimes.
Under the Not In My Village framework, village heads are expected to monitor social practices within their communities, verify marriage arrangements and ensure that children are protected from harmful cultural and social practices.
Chief Chisunga said accountability has become a key part of enforcement, with disciplinary measures now being applied where local leadership fails to act.
“We had a village head who allowed a child marriage to happen under his watch. He is serving a three-month sentence as we speak,” he said.
Traditional leaders say such actions are intended to send a strong message that child marriage is no longer tolerated and that community leaders themselves will be held responsible for negligence.
However, chiefs acknowledge that enforcement alone has not eliminated the challenge.
In border districts close to Mozambique and Zambia, traditional leaders say cases persist where offenders flee across borders after impregnating girls or engaging in child marriages, complicating efforts to hold them accountable.
Chief Chapoto of Mbire said porous borders remain a major challenge in the fight against child marriage.
“Once they discover that they have done something here, they flee into neighbouring Mozambique,” he said.
He added that lack of documentation further weakens enforcement efforts.
“Birth registration is a challenge in my area. The Doma people fall under my chieftaincy and they often shy away from formal registration systems. This makes it difficult to track ages, and child marriage cases become harder to prove,” said Chief Chapoto.
Without proper identity documents, chiefs say it becomes difficult to determine age, prosecute offenders or even prevent early marriages before they happen.
To address these gaps, traditional leaders say the campaign is evolving beyond awareness creation into systems strengthening.
Working with the Civil Registry Department and development partners, chiefs are rolling out outreach birth registration programmes aimed at bringing documentation services closer to communities.
“To address the challenges, we are working with partners who conduct outreach programmes in our areas to bring birth registration services to people’s doorsteps. This helps ensure that even hard-to-reach communities can obtain documents and that we are able to verify ages when cases arise,” said Chief Chapoto.
He said improved documentation is already helping communities better respond to child protection cases.
The campaign is also expanding beyond Zimbabwe’s borders.
Through the ZiMoZa initiative, communities in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Zambia are building on existing CAMPFIRE structures and local governance platforms to strengthen coordination in the fight against child marriage.
The approach recognises that migration and cross-border movement require shared responses to child protection challenges that extend beyond national boundaries.
National AIDS Council district AIDS coordinator for Muzarabani, Richard Chasima, said the campaign has already begun strengthening community engagement and should be supported to scale impact.
“The ZiMoZa anti-child marriage campaign is still work in progress. We need to support and strengthen this initiative to ensure it becomes more effective,” he said.
He added that districts such as Mazowe have recorded positive results through collaboration between chiefs, councillors and the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service, where inmates convicted of sexual offences have been used in community awareness programmes.
“These testimonies have helped communities understand the real consequences of child marriage and sexual offences. It has also acted as a deterrent for some men,” said Chasima.
From the development sector, UNFPA Zimbabwe says the campaign reflects the importance of community-led responses in addressing child marriage.
UNFPA Zimbabwe Representative Miranda Tabifor said the Not In My Village initiative was co-created with young people and has grown into a model of collaboration between communities, government and development partners.
She said the campaign reflects a broader global recognition that ending child marriage requires local ownership and sustained partnership.
“UNFPA remains committed to working with government institutions, the National AIDS Council, traditional leaders and young people to strengthen community systems that protect girls,” she said.
She added that community engagement remains central to changing harmful social norms.
“The response to child marriage must be rooted in communities themselves. When communities take ownership, change becomes more sustainable,” she said.
As the campaign grows, chiefs say its message remains unchanged.
Protecting children is no longer an issue left to families alone.
