TRANSITIONS TO ADULTHOOD PROGRAM SHOWN TO SIGNIFICANTLY DELAY CHILD MARRIAGE
An innovative program designed
and evaluated by the Population Council, in collaboration with government
agencies in Ethiopia,
has significantly reduced child marriage among young adolescent girls. (Child
marriage, defined as marriage before the age of 18, is a violation of human
rights, according to many international conventions.) The program, which also
substantially improved many aspects of the girls' lives, is one of the first
such successes documented by rigorous research.
Rural Amhara
In the Amhara region of Ethiopia, rates of child marriage
are among the highest in the world. Half of all girls in Amhara are married
before their 15th birthday, and 80 percent are married by age 18. Girls who
marry early are exposed to increased reproductive risks, experiencing sexual
initiation earlier than unmarried girls as well as first births at a young age.
Very early first births are associated with maternal risks, including
obstructed labor that can lead to obstetric fistula.
Amhara also has high rates of
divorce, with many divorced girls migrating to urban centers because of the
stigma of divorce. Anecdotal evidence suggests that in order to survive, these
young women often become domestic workers, involving long hours and low pay,
and some, as a last option, become sex workers.
The Population Council, led by Ethiopia country director Annabel Erulkar,
joined with Ethiopia's
Ministry of Youth and Sport and the Amhara Regional Bureau of Youth and Sport
to design and implement the Berhane Hewan program in Amhara. Berhane
Hewan means "Light for Eve" in Amharic. The groups developed the program to
inform community members about the dangers of child marriage, to prevent early
marriage among unmarried adolescents, and to provide support for girls who are
already married.
Before the start of the program, researchers conducted
a survey of adolescent girls in Amhara and found:
- Ninety-five
percent of the girls surveyed did not know their husband before marriage,
and 85 percent were not told that they were going to be married.
- More than
two-thirds of married girls reported that they had not started
menstruating when they had sex for the first time.
- Not
surprisingly, many of these marital unions are unstable: 12 percent of
girls in Amhara aged 10-19 are already divorced.
On the basis of these findings and the results of
conversations with community members, the program was designed to use a
combination of approaches:
- participation
in peer groups for married and unmarried girls led by female mentors in
community meeting spaces to overcome the isolation of adolescents;
- promotion of
school attendance for both formal and non-formal education, such as basic
literacy and livelihood skills;
- economic
incentives for school attendance and delaying marriage: unmarried girls
who participated in the groups and remained unmarried for the duration of
the program were presented with a goat at the graduation ceremony; and
- participatory
community discussion concerning early marriage, other harmful traditional
practices, and reproductive health.
The Amhara Regional Bureau of Youth and Sport
pilot-tested the program in Mosebo
Village, Amhara region,
between 2004 and 2006. The community responded enthusiastically to the program;
more than 650 girls in Mosebo joined Berhane Hewan in the two-year pilot
period.
Participating girls had three options for involvement
in the program. Girls who were still in school were encouraged to continue
their education and were given school materials, such as paper, pens, and
pencils. Out-of-school girls who wanted to return to formal school were
encouraged to do so and were given the same materials. Other out-of-school
girls, as well as those who never attended school, were organized into groups
of married and unmarried girls of about 15-20 girls each and met regularly with
mentors. Married girls, who face more time constraints than unmarried girls,
met once a week; unmarried girls met five times a week.
The researchers also studied comparable girls in
another area-Enamirt
Village, Mecha
District-where the program had not yet been launched. The researchers conducted
population- based impact evaluations immediately before the implementation and
again two years later, in both experimental and control areas. Researchers
examined changes associated with the program by comparing characteristics of
girls living in both locations before and after the pilot program. This
evaluation focused on four main areas: social networks and participation,
education, marital status, and reproductive health.
Success!
The evaluations showed that the vast majority of girls
living in the experimental area (92 percent) had heard of the program. Eighty-five
percent of them had taken part in the peer groups, and three-fourths had
attended a community discussion. At the same time, no girls in the control area
had heard of the program, reflecting no contamination of the control site.
The researchers found that the lives of girls who
participated in the program improved in all areas that were targeted by the
program, including friendship networks, school attendance, age at marriage,
reproductive health knowledge and communication, and contraceptive use.
The impact of the program was particularly apparent
for younger girls, aged 10 to 14. After controlling for marital status, age,
and socioeconomic status, Mosebo girls in this age group were significantly
more likely to be in school than were girls in the control area. Family
planning use increased in both areas, but more so in the experimental site. No
statistically significant differences were found between the two communities in
use of family planning methods at baseline. Among married and sexually
experienced girls, those living in Mosebo were nearly three times more likely
to have ever used a family planning method after the intervention. Compared to
girls in the control site, girls in the program site also were significantly
more knowledgeable about HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and family
planning methods, and were more likely to have discussed these issues with a
close friend.
Child marriage
Perhaps most strikingly, statistical analysis revealed
considerable effects on the age at marriage for younger girls, aged 10 to 14. Younger
Mosebo girls were 90 percent less likely to be married than were Enamirt girls
in the same age group. In addition, not one girl aged 10 to 14 in Mosebo had married
during the previous year. However, marriage was more common for older girls in
Mosebo, after the age of 15, than it was in Enamirt, as some girls in Mosebo
who had avoided marriage at a younger age got married in their late teens.
"This was perhaps due to the social expectation for
marriage during adolescence and its linkage with the status of the girl's
father. In Ethiopia,
girls who are not married by late adolescence are considered a disgrace to
their family," explained Erulkar. "Nevertheless, girls in Mosebo were given a
few critical extra years in which to expand their social networks, attend
school, learn more skills, and develop as individuals."
Because most girls participated in all program
components, it is difficult to tell whether specific components were more
influential than others in bringing about change. The Berhane Hewan experiment
demonstrates that significant impacts can be made on the social, educational,
and health status of adolescent girls in a short period of time, through
well-designed and -implemented support programs for girls. Based on this
success, the program has been expanded and now enrolls 12,000 girls in rural Ethiopia,
including in Enamirt.
http://www.popcouncil.org/publications/popbriefs/pb15(1)_3.html?utm_source=PB151&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PB151
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