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SOLUTIONS TO END CHILD MARRIAGE: SUMMARY OF THE
EVIDENCE
PAGE 1
Today there are nearly 70 million child brides worldwide. With
marriage, a girl’s childhood abruptly ends. Her health and future prospects
immediately fall in jeopardy. Tens of millions of girls in the developing world
at risk of being forced to wed as part of this deeply entrenched practice that
significantly impedes progress on human rights, education, global health and
economic development.
Fortunately,
there are ways to make a difference. The International Center for Research on
Women (ICRW) conducted a systematic review of programs that measured a change
in knowledge, attitudes and/or behaviors related to child marriage.
Twenty-three of more than 150 programs with a child marriage component had been
evaluated, offering important insights into what can be done to end the
practice. From these evaluations, ICRW identified five programmatic strategies
used to successfully delay or prevent child marriage.
Child
Marriage Prevalence* and Evaluated Programs**
*The
percentage of women ages 20 to 24 years old who were married before age 18.
(Source:
UNICEF. (2013). State of the World’s Children 2013: Children with
Disabilities. New York, NY: UNICEF.)
**Using
available data in 2011.
70+%: Niger
61-70%: Bangladesh, Central African Republic, Chad, Guinea
51-60%: Burkina Faso, Mali, Mozambique, South Sudan
46-50%: Eritrea, India, Madagascar, Malawi
40-45%: Afghanistan, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Nepal,
Nicaragua, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Uganda, Zambia
36-39%: Brazil, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo Gambia,
Honduras, Liberia, Nigeria, Tanzania
31-35%: Benin, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Mauritania, Sao Tome and
Principe, Senegal, Sudan, Yemen, Zimbabwe
25-30%: Belize, Bhutan, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Kenya Marshall
Islands, Nauru, Togo, Vanuatu
Text Box:
Fifty-one countries have national child marriage prevalence rates of
25 percent and higher. However, only 11 countries – indicated by a star on the
map – had evaluated child marriage programs: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt,
Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, Senegal, and Yemen.
Collectively, these programs have reached only a tiny fraction of the tens of
millions of girls at risk for child marriage.
PAGE 2
THE
FIVE STRATEGIES
Empower
girls with information, skills and support networks
By bringing girls together to learn basic skills like literacy and
numeracy, how to communicate and negotiate with others, how to stay healthy
during their reproductive years, how to work together to solve problems, and
how to earn and manage money, girls can become more knowledgeable and
self-confident. Also, meeting peers and
mentors helps alleviate the social and economic isolation many girls in
developing countries experience. Taken together, these gains enable girls to
advocate for themselves, make better decisions and aspire to alternatives to
early marriage.
Educate
and rally parents and community members
Families and community elders are traditionally responsible for
deciding when and whom a girl marries. Educating them – through meetings,
information campaigns and/or public announcements – about how child marriage
impacts a girl’s health and future often sparks powerful change. With new
knowledge, adults’ attitudes and behaviors about child marriage can shift; they
become more likely to challenge, rather than embrace, traditional expectations
of girls.
Enhance
girls’ access to a high-quality education
Girls with no education are three times as likely to marry before 18
as those with secondary or higher education. Providing incentives – such as
uniforms or scholarships – or the necessary skills and support for girls to
enroll and remain in school can help delay marriage. When girls are in school,
they are less likely to be seen as ready for marriage by their families and
community members. Programs aimed at improving the safety and girl-friendliness
of schools, strengthening school curricula and making school lessons relevant
to girls’ lives also are effective. School allows girls to develop supportive
social networks as well as the skills and knowledge to better advocate for
themselves – and their futures.
Provide
economic support and incentives to girls and their families
Parents may benefit financially from marrying their daughter off
early, either through gaining a bride price, lowering the price of the required
dowry or simply having one less mouth to feed. Approaches that enhance the
economic security of poor households can aid in curbing child marriage.
Providing a girl or her family with an incentive, such as a loan, or an
opportunity to learn an income-generating skill, can yield immediate economic
relief for struggling families. Daughters who learn skills that enable them to
earn an income in the future may be seen as adding more value to the family.
Encourage
supportive laws and policies
Many countries with high rates of child marriage have passed
legislation to prohibit the practice or have established a legal minimum age
for marriage. Advocating for the implementation of such laws, and raising
awareness among government officials and community leaders and members, helps
strengthen and/or better enforce existing initiatives around girls’ rights.
Where legislation is not on the books, advocating for legal and policy reform
is a critical first step.
PAGE 3
EXAMPLES
OF PROMISING PROGRAMS
ETHIOPIA
Berhane
Hewan
Organizations:
Ethiopian government, Population Council, UNFPA, UN Foundation, Nike
Foundation
Strategies:
Berhane Hewan targets married and unmarried girls ages 10 to 19 in Ethiopia’s
Amhara region. It also engages girls’ families as well as the broader
community. The program’s strategies to prevent child marriage and to support
married girls include forming girls’ groups, providing school materials to keep
girls in school, holding community conversations about child marriage, and enlisting
adult mentors to support girls. Berhane Hewan also awarded families with a goat
or sheep for keeping daughters in the program.
Results from pilot (2004-2006): Ten to 14-year-old girls in project village were 90 percent less likely to be married than girls in comparable control village. Berhane Hewan is ongoing and is now being scaled up in other parts of Ethiopia.
Sources: http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3500609.pdf; http://www.popcouncil.org/pdfs/2010PGY_BerhaneHewanReport.pdf
EGYPT
Ishraq
Organizations:
Save the Children, Caritas,
CEDPA, Population Council, Ministry of Youth, National Council for Childhood
and Motherhood
Strategies:
Ishraq is a two-year program for girls ages 12 to 15 who are not in
school. It aims to help them return to the classroom by teaching literacy and
numeracy, health and life skills. The program also provides financial education
and sports programming. Ishraq engages community members through group
education sessions about consequences of and alternatives to child marriage.
Results
(2001-2004): Ishraq girls expressed a desire to wait until
they are older to marry and to have a say in choosing a husband. The more
exposure they had to the program, the bigger the impact was. For example, the
percentage of girls who said they preferred to get married when are younger
than 18 decreased with program exposure: from 35 to 15 percent among girls who
participated for less than 12 months; from 28 to 5 percent among those involved
for 13 to 29 months; and from 26 to 1 percent among girls in the program for
the full 30 months. The program is ongoing.
Source: http://www.popcouncil.org/pdfs/IshraqFullReport.pdf
INDIA
Maharashtra
Life Skills Program
Organizations:
Institute for Health Management-Pachod, ICRW, Rockefeller Foundation,
Ford Foundation
Strategies: This program convened groups of unmarried adolescent girls for one hour each weekday over a year. They learned about reproductive and sexual health, effective communication and decision-making skills, among other topics. The program also educated community members about reproductive health and causes and consequences of child marriage, and mobilized adults to support girls. (#1, 2)
Results
(1998-1999): Girls’ median age at marriage increased from 16
to 17 in the program area, compared to no change in the control area.
Decision-makers in young married girls’ lives became more supportive and
knowledgeable of girls’ reproductive health needs. Girls at risk of child
marriage became more confident and gained skills to negotiate with their parents.
The Maharashtra program is ongoing.
SENEGAL
Community
Empowerment Program
Organizations:
Tostan, Center for Research
in Human Development, Population Council, UNICEF, Macro International Inc.
Strategies: This program targeted mostly women with informal education sessions around hygiene, problem solving, women’s health and human rights. It also mobilized village leaders and community members to stand up against harmful practices, such as female genital cutting and child marriage.
Results: Several villages made public declarations to end child marriage. Women who participated in the program and were exposed to community mobilization activities – as well as those who were only exposed to community activities – reported that they were more knowledgeable about their rights.
Source: http://www.unicef.org/evaldatabase/index_59605.html
PAGE 4
The next generation of development programs must make ending child
marriage a priority. Investments should take into account successful
programmatic strategies, such as those identified by ICRW, while continuing to
test innovative approaches and evaluation techniques. No single strategy,
however, will offer the antidote to child marriage. Indeed, a combination of
strategies, designed to fit the local context, will likely be most successful
in transforming behaviors, attitudes and social norms.
Moving forward, there also must be more investment in documenting and
evaluating what works to end child marriage. A body of successful programs now
exists to expand on, but much more work is required across geographic settings
and communities. Further, the 23 evaluated programs took place in only 11
countries, and did not cover many of the locations where child marriage
prevalence rates are highest. It is imperative that future programs are
anchored in countries, regions and communities where child marriage is
widespread. They must build on what is known, while analyzing the key factors
driving child marriage in each specific location. Programs then need to tailor
their objectives to address those factors among community members and within
systems.
It is critical that these efforts do not overlook girls who are
already married. They are among the most marginalized members of society and
need special attention in development programs and planning. Married girls, and
their peers at risk of early marriage, must be at the center of programs.
Families, community leaders and the broader community are also essential to
helping change norms and expectations about what is possible for girls and
women.
Finally, programs that are promoting other development goals, such as
improving access to education, reducing vulnerability to HIV, improving
maternal and child health, and promoting food security, can and should address
child marriage in order to achieve long-term success. Indeed, ICRW’s review
found that many promising strategies that had an impact on preventing child
marriage were part of programs with broader development goals.
A committed, inclusive approach to addressing child marriage will
contribute significantly to not only creating a world where girls are free to
decide if, when and whom to marry, but also one where girls and women are
safer, healthier, valued and empowered.