The first step to tackling EFM and FGM is to make sure the international community is speaking with one voice. Every year 14 million girls and women are forced to marry early or against their will. When a girl cannot decide for herself when to marry and have children, it’s not just a tragedy for her, it’s a disaster for development.

It’s time to break the silence of early and forced marriage and recognise that it is exploitation as serious as any other form of child abuse.

Early and forced marriage drives girls into a cycle of poverty, ill health, illiteracy and powerlessness. It’s most prevalent where poverty is rife and where education and health systems are poor.

But as well as economic empowerment, early and forced marriage is first and foremost an issue of rights and gender inequality. It is through empowering girls, boys and community leaders to protect and advocate for girls’ rights that we will see an end to this practice.

Child brides are among the world’s most voiceless and isolated people. We’re pleased to see that DFID is helping to bring attention to child marriage, a problem once overlooked on the international stage.

We know what it will take to end child marriage, but change won’t happen overnight. Successful efforts must be grounded in the realities of the places where child marriage is common. That is why we need to support the community-based organisations at the forefront of this issue, working with parents and communities to create a better future for their daughters. It is only by working in partnership over the long term that we will be able to reach all those girls who are being held back by child marriage.

1. DFID is supporting the growing movement within Africa to end FGM and has established a consortium of leading anti-FGM campaigners to support activists across Africa raising awareness of the pain and suffering FGM causes and showing that we can end the practice

2. Plan is a global children’s charity. It works with children in the world’s poorest countries to help them build a better future. Plan’s ‘Because I am a Girl’ campaign aims to highlight the plight and potential of the world’s poorest girls by securing them an education and support

3. Girls Not Brides is a global partnership of over 300 civil society organisations across more than 50 countries working to end child marriage @GirlsNotBrides

4. The Gender and Development Network is a diverse, effective and inclusive membership network made up of leading UK-based non-governmental organisations’ (NGO) staff, practitioners, consultants and academics working on gender, development and women’s rights issues