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Solutions to End Child Marriage WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS. Anju Malhotra Ann Warner Allison McGonagle Susan Lee-Rife
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1 Solutions to End Child Marriage WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS Anju Malhotra Ann Warner Allison McGonagle Susan Lee-Rife
2 ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON WOMEN (ICRW) For 35 years, ICRW has worked to empower women, advance gender equality and fight poverty in the developing world. ICRW works with partners in the public and private sectors and civil society to conduct empirical research, build capacity and advocate for evidence-based practical ways to change policies and programs. To learn more about our work on child marriage, visit ICRW gratefully acknowledges the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation and the World Health Organization for their generous support of this research International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). Portions of this report may be reproduced without express permission from but with acknowledgment to ICRW. Cover photos: Robyne Hayes in Ethiopia and David Snyder in India Design: Do Good Design
3 Solutions to End Child Marriage WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS Introduction The Problem FIGURE 1: Youth Cohort Size and Child Marriage Prevalence Solutions: What Do We Know? What Works: A Systematic Review EVALUATED PROGRAMS: AN OVERVIEW FIGURE 2: Program Initiation Year Evaluation Publication Year FIGURE 3: Scale of Program Outreach FIGURE 4: Child Marriage Prevention as a Deliberate Objective in Programs FIGURE 5: Geographic Distribution of Programs PROGRAM STRATEGIES TABLE 1: Program Strategies SUMMARY TABLE: Evaluated Child Marriage Prevention Programs: Evaluation Approach and Methodologies EVALUATION RESULTS FIGURE 6: Results: Change in Knowledge/Attitudes by Evaluation Rigor FIGURE 7: Results: Change in Behavior by Evaluation Rigor Concluding Insights 1. DEPTH VERSUS SCALE AND SUSTAINABILITY 2. EVALUATION RIGOR 3. TIME HORIZON 4. SELECTION BIAS AND TIPPING POINT Summary of Findings Agenda for Future Action Program and Evaluation References References
4 Solutions to End Child Marriage WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS INTRODUCTION National and international communities are increasingly recognizing child marriage as a serious problem, both as a violation of girls human rights and as a hindrance to key development outcomes. As more program, policy, donor and advocacy constituencies pledge commitment, resources and action to address this problem, it becomes important to examine past efforts and how well they have worked. Finding model solutions to address child marriage has been a challenge because, while there has been increasing investment in programs during the last decade, many are not well-documented, and even fewer are well-evaluated. In this brief, we summarize a systematic review of child marriage prevention programs that have documented evaluations. Based on this synthesis of evaluated programs, we offer an analysis of the broader implications for viable solutions to child marriage. Our findings show that child marriage prevention programs have indeed expanded in number and scope during the last decade; almost two dozen have documented some type of an evaluation. The largest number of evaluated programs is in South Asia, especially in Bangladesh and India. Programs in a broader range of African and Middle Eastern countries, including Ethiopia and Egypt, are also adding to the evidence base. On balance, the results from this composite of evaluations lean toward positive findings, indicating that a set of strategies focusing on girls empowerment, community mobilization, enhanced schooling, economic incentives and policy changes have improved knowledge, attitudes, and behavior related to child marriage prevention. The strongest, most consistent results are shown in a subset of programs fostering information, skills, and networks for girls in combination with community mobilization. While many child marriage prevention programs are only beginning to explore possibilities of going to scale, there are encouraging signs that large-scale structural efforts aimed at other goals, such as education, health, and poverty reduction, are beginning to make a connection with child marriage prevention. A smaller, but growing set of such programs is providing tentative but promising evaluation results, laying the foundation for building new partnerships and leveraging scarce resources. THE PROBLEM Based on the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child, child marriage refers to marriage under age 18 (UN 2000). Marriage before the age of 18 is a fundamental human rights violation. Child marriage disproportionately affects young girls, who are much more likely to be married as children than young boys (Mathur et al 2003; UNICEF 2005; Save the Children 2004). The latest international estimates indicate that worldwide, more than 60 million women aged were married before they reached the age of 18 (UNICEF 2007). 2
5 INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON WOMEN The extent of child marriage varies substantially between countries; the highest rates are found in West Africa, followed by South Asia, North Africa/Middle East and Latin America (Clifton & Frost 2011). However, as Figure 1 shows, countries with the highest percentage of females 20 to 24 who report having been married before 18 are not the same countries in which the largest number of girls are vulnerable to this practice. When considering the number of girls aged across various countries, more girls are at risk of child marriage in India than in most other countries combined. In fact, given population size and significant rates of child marriage in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, about one-half of the girls who are affected by child marriage live in South Asia (UNICEF 2007). FIGURE 1: Youth Cohort Size and Child Marriage Prevalence Select countries 44.5% 113,560, % 21,523,000 15,503, % 39.4% 15,282,000 8,937, % 7,920, % 3,455, % 1,525, % India Indonesia Bangladesh Nigeria Ethiopia Egypt Uganda Mali Number of girls ages 10-19** Percent of females married under age 18* * NOTE: Based on national surveys conducted between 2004 and 2008 in which women ages reported being married by age 18. * SOURCE: ICF Macro, DHS surveys ** NOTE: Data reflects population size in 2005 ** SOURCE: Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision, Data suggest that child marriage prevalence is decreasing overall, but the pace of change is slow. In 34 of the 55 countries with comparable data from two recent surveys, there has been no significant change in the percentage of women aged married by 18 and only 5 countries experienced a decrease of more than 10 percent (UNICEF, 2007). For example, Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data show that in Niger, the proportion of marriages under age 18 for year-old girls declined only 2 percentage 3
6 Solutions to End Child Marriage WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS points from 1998 to 2006, from 77 percent to 75 percent. In Nicaragua, the decline over a five-year period from 2001 to 2006 was just 3 percentage points, from 43 percent to 40 percent. In India, the decline in a seven-year period from 1998 to 2005 was only about 3 percentage points, from 50 percent to 47 percent (Macro International Inc. 2011). The consequences of child marriage to the girls who experience it can be devastating (Jain & Kurz 2007; UNICEF 2001; 2005; Mathur et al 2003). Early marriage leads to early childbearing, with significantly higher maternal mortality and morbidity rates as well as higher infant mortality rates (Mensch 2005; UNICEF 2005; Save the Children 2004; Bott & Jejeebhoy 2003). Moreover, child marriage has negative effects on girls education. Girls with low levels of schooling are more likely to be married early, and child marriage virtually puts an end to a girl s education (Mathur et al 2003; Mensch 2005; Jejeebhoy 1995). A child bride s lack of education and peers limits her support systems, and without skills, mobility, and connections, she is constrained in her ability to overcome poverty for herself, her children, or her family. Young girls married to older men with more sexual experience are also at greater risk of HIV infection (Clark 2004), and child brides are at heightened risk of violence in the home (ICRW 2005; Santhya et al 2010). The lack of education, health, physical safety, and autonomy deprives girls of their basic human rights, and it also acts as a brake to social and economic development. National and international indicators on maternal health, education, food security, poverty eradication, HIV/AIDS, and gender equality are all negatively linked with high child marriage rates. In fact, child marriage undermines the achievement of each of the eight Millennium Development Goals and global targets to reduce poverty worldwide (Hervish & Feldman-Jacobs 2011; UNICEF 2006; IPPF 2007). SOLUTIONS: WHAT DO WE KNOW? Efforts to address child marriage in many parts of the world date back to the 1920s. For example, the first legislative attempt to end child marriage in India was through the passage of the Sarda Act in 1929 (Mukherjee 2006). More recently, legal reform began to gain ground in the 1970s and 1980s, as countries such as Bangladesh, India and Indonesia established or raised the legal minimum age of marriage to 18 for girls. During the same period, human rights activists and the United Nations launched efforts to address harmful traditional practices affecting women. However, programmatic interventions to eradicate this practice have only gained momentum since the 1990s, coinciding with the attention to adolescent reproductive health at the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 and the assertion of women s and girls human rights at the UN International Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 (UNICEF 2001). 4
7 INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON WOMEN Several organizations have examined the causes and consequences of child marriage in some detail (Bott & Jejeebhoy 2003; Mathur et al 2003; UNICEF 2001), and many have highlighted promising programmatic approaches to prevent child marriage (e.g., USAID 2009; Hervish & Feldman-Jacobs 2011). However, comprehensive reviews to take stock of existing programs have been more limited. The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) undertook one such effort in 2007, and identified 66 child marriage-related programs in 30 countries (Jain & Kurz 2007). ICRW conducted a follow-up review that focused solely on India and identified 58 program and policy efforts targeting child marriage in the country (Mukherjee et al 2008). These reviews have uncovered important insights on the scope and range of interventions to address this problem. Many programs recognize the multitude of factors driving the persistence of child marriage. These interventions have tried comprehensive or integrated approaches that engage communities, families and policymakers, while attempting to impart to girls skills, opportunities and empowerment. However, prevention efforts were not always focused in the countries with the highest rates of child marriage (Jain & Kurz 2007). And many efforts lacked scale and were not integrated into larger government initiatives or private sector drivers of economic and social change to be sustainable in the long run (Mukherjee et al 2008). Most importantly, existing reviews of initiatives to prevent child marriage indicate that few of these have been evaluated (Jain & Kurz 2007; Hervish & Feldman-Jacobs 2011; Mukherjee et al 2008). For example, only 10 percent of the programs identified in the 2007 ICRW scan had been evaluated. Still fewer were evaluated using rigorous methodologies or included information about the evaluation process. Thus, while we know something about what has been attempted to prevent child marriage, we know little about how successful these efforts have been. To address this gap, this brief focuses on and systematically analyzes the small number of evaluated programs with the goal of preventing child marriage. This analysis provides guidance not only on what has worked, but what can be done to strengthen current and future efforts to prevent child marriage. 5
8 Solutions to End Child Marriage WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS WHAT WORKS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW In 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) commissioned ICRW to undertake a systematic review that would use the established WHO methodology to identify, review and appraise research evidence relevant to the prevention of child marriage. In collaboration with WHO, ICRW conducted an extensive search of international, regional and WHO databases to identify program interventions and policy strategies that had documented measurement of change in child marriage-related behaviors and/or attitudes. We identified additional programs by conducting a general online search, examining websites of organizations known for their involvement with child marriage prevention and ing relevant staff, and reviewing a wide range of program scans and other documents in the published and grey literature. In total, we identified more than 150 potentially relevant efforts to prevent child marriage. However, only 23 of these documented an attempt to measure change in child marriage-related behaviors, knowledge, or attitudes among relevant stakeholders. These programs were implemented between 1973 and 2009, with several of the programs continuing through the present, and evaluations were published between 1991 and Our search suggests a significant increase in the number of interventions targeting child marriage during the last decade. The majority of programs work directly with girls, offering them opportunities to obtain skills and education. Most efforts engage with families and community members and attempt to change underlying social norms that perpetuate the practice of child marriage. Many interventions also offer economic incentives to parents to promote education and healthy behaviors as well as prevent child marriage. As increased resources are dedicated to preventing child marriage, interest in learning the impact of these efforts has also increased. Although 23 is not a large number, this is the first critical mass of evaluated programs. Of course, the "positive bias" in the documentation and publication of evaluations may shape the conclusions we draw about them; unsuccessful programs are less likely to be documented and published. It is important to note that a few promising approaches especially at scale are underway, but do not as yet have completed evaluations. An important example is the Haryana state government s Apni Beti Apna Dhan program in India, which provides to girls and their families cash incentives that are conditional on the daughters remaining unmarried until age 18 (Sinha & Young 2009). The first cohort of girls enrolled in the program will turn 18 in 2012, and ICRW is initiating an evaluation of the program. Similarly, the Population Council is investigating the effectiveness and cost of different strategies to delay marriage in four sub-saharan African countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, building on its successful Berhane Hewan program in Ethiopia (USAID 2011). Pathfinder s PRACHAR program in Bihar, India, has also built on positive results to scale up and evaluate activities in subsequent phases (Rahman & Daniel 2010). 6
9 INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON WOMEN Other large-scale programs may be poised to undertake evaluations on child marriage in the near future. For example, programs targeting girls safety and reduction of violence in schools, such as the Safe Schools program sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Ghana and Malawi, have child marriage prevention as one objective, but data to evaluate this outcome is currently not collected (USAID 2008). Similarly, governments and multi-lateral agencies undertaking large-scale initiatives to eradicate poverty, expand economic opportunity, promote women s empowerment and promote girls education have the potential to prevent child marriage because they are, in effect, addressing some of its drivers. However, these broader initiatives have not always been developed with child marriage in mind, and therefore do not collect relevant data. EVALUATED PROGRAMS: AN OVERVIEW We begin with an overview of the 23 evaluated programs. Figure 2 presents when these programs were initiated and when evaluations were published. The figure illustrates that much of the activity on child prevention is recent: more than half (13) of the programs were initiated in the last decade. Seven programs were initiated in the 1990s, coinciding with the two major UN conferences on reproductive health and women s rights. Only three programs had documented evidence earlier than the 1990s. The figure also helps explain why so little evidence has been available to date on the success of programs addressing child marriage: 15 out of 23 evaluations were published since Figure 3 illustrates the targeted outreach for these programs. Not surprisingly given the nascent stage of child marriage interventions, the vast majority of programs have had limited outreach and have yet to go to scale. In fact, nine of 23 programs aimed to reach fewer than 5,000 beneficiaries and almost three-quarters or 14 programs reached fewer than 15,000 beneficiaries. Only six programs reached more than 60,000 beneficiaries. Figure 4 shows that only five out of 23 programs had preventing child marriage as a primary objective. A significant proportion of the programs (7 out of 23) included child marriage-related outcomes only as an incidental objective. These programs were often educational, infrastructure or cash incentive interventions implemented and/or supported by national or local governments; bilateral or multi-lateral donors such as the World Bank, USAID, or the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA); or large non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Building Resources Across Communities (BRAC) 1 in Bangladesh. As such, these interventions also had the greatest scope for expansive outreach. 1 BRAC was formerly known as the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee. 7
10 Solutions to End Child Marriage WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS FIGURE 2: Program Initiation Year Number of Programs Prior to present Evaluation Publication Year Number of Programs Prior to present FIGURE 3: Scale of Program Outreach Number of Programs Less than 5,000 5,001 15,000 15,001 30,000 30,001 60,000 60,
11 INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON WOMEN FIGURE 4: Child Marriage Prevention as a Deliberate Objective in Programs Primary objective One of several objectives An incidental objective In contrast, programs with child marriage as the primary objective often had a strong advocacy and/or community-based focus. This focus ranged from national advocacy and legislative efforts to more regionally concentrated, intensive and high quality programs in countries with strong local will and capacity along with committed international partners. The Berhane Hewan program in Amhara, Ethiopia and the Maharashtra Life Skills Program in India fall into this category. However, for almost half (11 of 23) of programs, delaying marriage was one of several programmatic objectives. Generally, child marriage prevention goals were tied to broader educational, reproductive health, livelihoods, and empowerment objectives. Several of these programs were funded by foundations, including the Packard Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the Nike Foundation, aiming to foster innovation by addressing gender issues in a larger context. Other efforts were supported by USAID and UNICEF with the same goal. These programs were usually implemented and evaluated by local organizations in partnership with international NGOs, including ICRW, the Population Council, Pathfinder, CEDPA, and Save the Children, committed to broader empowerment goals for girls. In Bangladesh, BRAC has been an important catalyst for such programs, often collaborating with international agencies on funding, design and evaluation. Our study found the vast majority of evaluated programs were implemented in Asia mostly in South Asia which previous reviews also confirm. Only one program was in West Asia (Afghanistan) and one in Southeast Asia (Indonesia). Figure 5 shows that 15 of the 23 programs were in Asia, four in East Africa, three in North Africa/Middle East, and one in West Africa. Overall the 23 programs were located in 11 unique countries. The largest number was in Bangladesh (7) and India (5), followed by Ethiopia (2) and Egypt (2). Our findings match those of Jain & Kurz (2007) in that the geographic distribution of interventions does not coincide fully with countries that have the highest 9
12 Solutions to End Child Marriage WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS proportions of girls marrying before age 18. In particular, the number of evaluated programs is very limited in West Africa where several countries (e.g., Chad, Mali, Niger and Senegal) have around 70 percent of girls marrying younger than age 18. On the other hand, the heavy concentration of programs in South Asia, particularly in India and Bangladesh, coincides with both the proportion and the number of girls marrying below age 18. As noted earlier, South Asia is home to the largest number of child brides. FIGURE 5: Geographic Distribution of Programs Asia East Africa North Africa/Middle East West Africa PROGRAM STRATEGIES In our systematic review of 23 evaluated programs, we identified five main strategies for delaying marriage or preventing child marriage. These strategies and how frequently they were used are highlighted in Table 1. It is important to note that most programs employ multiple strategies, the most frequent combination being strategy 1 and 2 (11 programs), followed by strategy 1 and 3 (7 programs) and strategies 1 and 4, as well as 2 and 3 (5 programs each). We discuss these strategies, their rationale, key elements and the specific programs deploying them in more detail below. 10
13 INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON WOMEN TABLE 1: Program Strategies PROGRAM STRATEGY 1. Empowering girls with information, skills, and support networks 2. Educating and mobilizing parents and community members 3. Enhancing the accessibility and quality of formal schooling for girls 4. Offering economic support and incentives for girls and their families 5. Fostering an enabling legal and policy framework NUMBER OF PROGRAMS Empowering girls with information, skills and support networks The vast majority (18 of 23) of evaluated programs in our review concentrate on girls themselves, focusing on training, building skills, sharing information, creating safe spaces and developing support networks. The main rationale behind this set of interventions is to equip young girls to better know themselves, their world and their options and to end their social and economic isolation, enabling them to act and advocate for themselves, in both the short- and long-term. A related rationale is that girls with more human and social capital will aspire to jobs and enterprises as alternatives to marriage. They will also be viewed differently by parents and community members, making it unacceptable to marry them at young ages and thus helping to change norms around child marriage. At least for the duration of the programs, these activities may also serve as socially acceptable alternatives to marriage, something often lacking in communities with high rates of child marriage. Thus, typically, such programs incorporate the following range of interventions: Life skills training to teach girls about health, nutrition, money, finance, legal awareness, communication, negotiation, decision-making and other relevant topics. PROGRAM EXAMPLES: Kishori Abhijan (Bangladesh), Maharashtra Life Skills Program (India) Vocational and livelihoods skills training to equip girls for income generation activities. PROGRAM EXAMPLES: Community-Based Rural Livelihoods Programme (Afghanistan), Employment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) Centers (Bangladesh) 11
14 Solutions to End Child Marriage WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS Sexual and reproductive health training (may be incorporated under life skills). PROGRAM EXAMPLES: Better Life Options Program (India), School-based HIV/AIDS program (Kenya), PRACHAR (India) Information, education, communication (IEC) campaigns using various platforms to convey messages about child marriage, schooling, rights, reproductive health and other topics. PROGRAM EXAMPLES: Adolescent Participatory Project (Nepal), PRACHAR (India) Mentoring and peer group training to youth leaders, adults, teachers, etc. to provide ongoing information and support to girls. PROGRAM EXAMPLES: Development Initiative Supporting Healthy Adolescents (DISHA) (India), Berhane Hewan (Ethiopia) Safe spaces or forums, clubs and meetings that allow girls to meet, gather, connect and socialize outside the home. PROGRAM EXAMPLES: Ishraq (Egypt), DISHA (India) The age of girls targeted in such programs can range from 10-24, depending on the specific intervention components involved. These are largely community-based programs where program implementers reach out to girls through community channels and school systems. Program components may be provided in conjunction with schools, or outside of school settings, and may or may not involve boys of similar age groups. For example, the PRACHAR program worked with young people of both sexes. Several programs see delayed marriage as part of an overall effort to empower girls and include most of the intervention components. The DISHA, Ishraq and Better Life Options (BLP) programs are examples of this comprehensive approach. Several of these and other programs, such as BRAC s Kishori Abhijan and the Employment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) programs in Bangladesh, also incorporate some type of livelihoods skills component in an effort to further build girls human capital and prepare them for income-earning opportunities. Most importantly, however, these community-based programs are almost always implemented in conjunction with strategy 2, educating and mobilizing parents and community members. Several programs that focus on empowering girls with information, skills and support systems have documented notable changes in knowledge, attitudes and behavior related to child marriage within only a few years, although none attribute these changes to any specific intervention component in the overall strategy. 12
15 INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON WOMEN 2. Educating and mobilizing parents and community members Parental and community engagement is the second most frequently used strategy, employed by 13 of 23 programs. As mentioned, this strategy usually accompanies other approaches described here, especially strategy 1. The primary motivation behind this strategy to create an enabling environment is the understanding that the decision to marry girls early is generally in the hands of family and community elders, and that the resulting stigma and sanctions for failing to meet social expectations are administered by the broader community. Girls rarely have the power to decide on their own if, when or whom to marry. Thus, parental education and community mobilization attempt to change social norms and forge a more supportive, less punitive environment for girls and families who are willing and ready to change the custom of early marriage. Enlisting parents and community members helps to mitigate possible unintended consequences of girls participation in programs, and also reinforces a program s messages and activities. Programs employing this strategy include the following range of interventions: One-on-one meetings with parents, community and religious leaders to gain support. PROGRAM EXAMPLES: Ethiopia Early Marriage Evaluation Study (EMES) (Ethiopia), Kishori Abhijan (Bangladesh) Group and community education sessions on the consequences of and alternatives to child marriage. PROGRAM EXAMPLES: Ishraq (Egypt), PRACHAR (India) Parental and adult committees and forums as guides to life skills and sexual and reproductive health curricula. PROGRAM EXAMPLES: Adolescent Participatory Project (Nepal), Maharashtra Life Skills Program (India) Information, education, communication (IEC) campaigns using various platforms to convey messages about child marriage, schooling, rights, reproductive health and other topics. PROGRAM EXAMPLES: Integrated Action on Poverty and Early Marriage (IAPE) (Yemen), Gender Quality Action Learning Program (GQAL) (Bangladesh) Public announcements and pledges by influential leaders, family heads, and community members. PROGRAM EXAMPLES: Tostan (Senegal) This strategy is generally implemented as an accompaniment to others, and it is difficult to assess the extent to which community education and mobilization efforts contribute to program failure or success, because most evaluations are not designed to isolate the impact of this component. At the same time, most program implementers argue that it may well be impossible to implement programs aimed at such significant social change without actively engaging community members. 13
16 Solutions to End Child Marriage WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS The power of community mobilization can perhaps be best assessed by examining the few programs that have taken on community mobilization as their core activity. On the whole, such evaluations demonstrate success, although their designs do not conform to the highest level of methodological rigor, which in itself presents a significant challenge for broad-based community interventions. In this category is the Integrated Action on Poverty and Early Marriage program in Yemen, which sponsored a campaign to raise awareness of parents, grandparents and youth about the consequences of early marriage. The advocacy efforts were instrumental in the introduction of a minimum legal age of marriage in Yemen. The Tostan approach implemented in Senegal does not focus on legal change, and is instead built around informal community education and awareness-raising that facilitates community mobilization, sometimes in the form of public declarations against harmful practices, such as female genital cutting and early marriage. Tostan boasts a large number of converted communities through documented pledges but finds less conclusive results on actual declines in child marriage. 3. Enhancing the accessibility and quality of formal schooling for girls Research shows that girls education is strongly associated with delayed marriage. Girls with secondary schooling are up to six times less likely to marry as children when compared to girls who have little or no education (UNICEF 2007). The causality of this relationship is debated, although more recent research suggests that being out of school puts girls at risk of marriage rather than marriage being a reason for girls being pulled out of school (Lloyd 2006). Schooling is protective against marriage for at least two reasons. Normatively, simply being in school helps a girl to be seen as a child, and thus not marriageable. Other than home, schools can be seen as a safe space for girls. This seems to be largely the case, even with continued parental concerns about violence or sexual harassment in many settings. Thus, as it becomes a socially acceptable alternative, school attendance helps to shift norms about early marriage. Additionally, the experience and content of schooling help girls to develop social networks and acquire skills and information, all of which contribute to their ability to better communicate and negotiate their interests. For parents and society, better quality and secondary education may make the returns to human capital investment in girls more obvious and justifiable. For all these reasons, formal schooling should have emerged as one of the strongest program interventions to prevent child marriage, especially given the existing momentum toward universal schooling and increased emphasis on secondary education. Past reviews, however, have found this strategy to be under-utilized as a route to child marriage prevention (Jain & Kurz 2007; Mukherjee 2008). In this review, we find encouraging signs of an increasing number of programs employing formal schooling as a means 14
17 INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON WOMEN to delay marriage, although several continue to be driven by communities rather than school systems. Of the 23 evaluated programs, nine addressed early marriage by improving opportunities for girls to attend and stay in school or by investing in the content or quality of girls formal education. Programs employing this strategy tend to use the following interventions: Preparing, training and supporting girls for enrollment or re-enrollment in school. PROGRAM EXAMPLES: Berhane Hewan (Ethiopia), Ishraq (Egypt) Improving the school curriculum and training teachers to deliver content on topics such as life skills, sexual and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, and gender sensitivity. PROGRAM EXAMPLES: School-based HIV/AIDS Program (Kenya), BRAC Adolescent Development Program (Bangladesh), Adolescent Participatory Project (Nepal) Building schools, improving facilities (especially for girls), and hiring female teachers. PROGRAM EXAMPLE: Community-based Rural Livelihoods program (Afghanistan) Cash, scholarships, fee subsidies, uniforms and supplies as incentives for girls to enroll and remain in school. PROGRAM EXAMPLES: Zomba Cash Transfer Program (Malawi), Female Secondary School Stipend Program (Bangladesh) Most of these interventions can be mobilized at large scale by the education sector, but thus far the connection with delayed marriage in preparing girls for school, improving school curriculum and building schools is being forged largely by external actors, including community and gender advocates, NGOs, and the HIV/AIDS and reproductive health sectors. For the most part, such interventions have yet to go to scale or be fully integrated into the educational system. These programs are generally yielding positive outcomes on delaying marriage, and the increasing evidence base may provide the necessary momentum for such integration. Only one of these interventions with evaluated impact on child marriage focuses on infrastructural issues. The Community-based Rural Livelihoods program in Afghanistan lobbied the provincial and district governments to establish more schools and recruit teachers, constructed two schools, invested in hiring and training female teachers, and provided public health and hygiene classes in schools. Most other programs concentrated on working with girls to facilitate enrollment or with the school system to introduce new curriculum. 15
18 Solutions to End Child Marriage WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS SUMMARY TABLE: Evaluated Child Marriage Prevention Programs: * COUNTRY, PROGRAM AND EVALUATION PERIOD ORGANIZATIONS** POPULATION REACHED PROGRAM STRATEGY OBJEC- TIVE EVALUATION RIGOR AND RESULTS 1. AFGHANISTAN Community-Based Rural Livelihoods Programme BANGLADESH Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health (ARSH)/ KAISHAR BANGLADESH Adolescent Reproductive Health Education Intervention *** 4. BANGLADESH BRAC Adolescent Development Program *** 5. BANGLADESH ELA Centers *** 6. BANGLADESH Female Secondary School Stipend Program *** 7. BANGLADESH Gender Quality Action Learning Programme BANGLADESH Kishori Abhijan EGYPT Ishraq *** Oxfam, Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation Save the Children USA, Associates for Community and Population Research (ACPR), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare BRAC BRAC, Rajshahi University BRAC, Nike Foundation Bangladesh government, BRAC, Population Council, World Bank BRAC BRAC, CMES, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, Population Council, UNICEF Caritas, CEDPA, Population Council, Save the Children, Ministry of Youth, National Council for Childhood and Motherhood 5,001-15,000 3 less than 5,000 15,001-30, , ,001-60, , less than 5,000 5,001-15,000 2 less than 5, Positive Positive N/A Mixed Positive N/A Positive N/A No change Positive N/A Mixed Mixed N/A N/A Mixed Mixed Positive 10. EGYPT New Horizons CEDPA, North South Consultants Exchange, USAID 15,001-30,000 2 Mixed N/A 11. ETHIOPIA Berhane Hewan *** Ethiopian Ministry of Youth and Sport, Amhara Regional Bureau of Youth and Sport, Population Council, UNFPA, UN Foundation, Nike Foundation less than 5,000 1 No change Mixed 12. ETHIOPIA Early Marriage Evaluation Study (EMES) World Learning, Pathfinder, USAID less than 5,000 3 Mixed No change 16
19 INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON WOMEN SUMMARY TABLE: Evaluated Child Marriage Prevention Programs: * continued COUNTRY, PROGRAM AND EVALUATION PERIOD ORGANIZATIONS** POPULATION REACHED PROGRAM STRATEGY OBJEC- TIVE EVALUATION RIGOR AND RESULTS 13. INDIA Development Initiative for Supporting Healthy Adolescence (DISHA) ICRW, 6 local NGOs, Packard Foundation 5,001-15,000 2 Positive Positive 14. INDIA Maharashtra Life Skills Program Institute for Health Management-Pachod, ICRW, Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation less than 5,000 1 N/A Positive 15. INDIA PRACHAR *** Pathfinder International, Packard Foundation, UNFPA, Government of Bihar, over 30 local partners 60, Mixed Positive 16. INDIA Tubewell Intervention Rockefeller Foundation less than 5,000 3 N/A Positive 17. INDIA Better Life Options Program *** CEDPA, 4 local organizations, USAID 5,001-15,000 2 N/A Positive 18. INDONESIA Indonesia's Marriage Law (1974) Government of Indonesia, Southwestern University School of Law 60, N/A No change 19. KENYA School-based HIV/AIDS Program Kenya Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, International Child Support, World Bank, Partnership for Child Development, MIT 60, N/A Positive 20. MALAWI Zomba Cash Transfer Program World Bank, Government of Malawi less than 5,000 3 N/A Mixed 21. NEPAL Adolescent Participatory Project ICRW, EngenderHealth, 9 Nepali organizations, Mellon Foundation less than 5,000 2 N/A Mixed 22. SENEGAL Tostan *** 23. YEMEN Integrated Action on Poverty and Early Marriage (IAPE) Tostan, Center for Research in Human Development, Population Council, Macro International, UNICEF, Government of Italy, Government of the Netherlands 60, Oxfam, Danida 5,001-15,000 1 Positive Mixed Positive N/A Empowering girls with information, skills, and support networks Educating and mobilizing parents and community members Enhancing the accessibility and quality of formal schooling for girls Offering economic support and incentives for girls and their families Fostering an enabling legal and policy framework Primary Approach Secondary Approach * Continuing programs were evaluated for specific intervention periods; the evaluations were published between ** Organizations include implementing agencies, donors, and research partners, with some organizations playing overlapping roles. *** Program continues through present. EVALUATION RIGOR Less Rigorous Moderately Rigorous More Rigorous OBJECTIVE Child marriage prevention as: 1) primary objective; 2) one of several objectives; or 3) an incidental objective 17
20 Solutions to End Child Marriage WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS In contrast, interventions focused on subsidies, scholarships and cash incentives have full engagement with governments and school systems, and may even emerge from the education sector. For this reason, they tend to reach larger numbers of beneficiaries. However, few national or local incentive programs have been designed with preventing child marriage in mind; thus, viable evaluations are difficult to undertake. The Zomba Cash Transfer program in Malawi has evaluated the role of conditional cash transfer programs for changing schooling, marriage, and sexual behaviors of adolescent girls in Malawi. In a study published in 2010, the authors find that girls who were not in school at the beginning of the program, and were offered conditional cash transfers, were 40 percent less likely to marry after one year than girls in the control group suggesting that in this setting, schooling does have a protective effect for girls who are at higher risk of early marriage and pregnancy. The Female Secondary School Stipend program in Bangladesh is the only example of an evaluation of a large-scale program initiated by the education sector of a national government with the explicit intention of delaying marriage. The program s primary aim is to increase girls secondary school enrollment and retention, and it has made significant progress in doing so. But it is one of the very few education programs that aimed to delay marriage by keeping girls in school. An evaluation of the program between 1992 to 1995 found that the program had an immediate and significant effect in delaying marriage ; however, this study is limited to two villages in Bangladesh. The overall impact of the program on age of marriage at a national level is inconclusive in the absence of a comparison group, and Demographic and Health Surveys show relatively little change in the average age of marriage in the country since the program started (16.4 in 2007 compared to 15.3 in 1994). 4. Offering economic support and incentives for girls and their families Poverty and the lack of viable income-generating options for girls and young women are important factors contributing to high child marriage rates. Increasingly, programs are beginning to address this economic motivation for families to marry daughters at an early age. Eight of the 23 programs employed this strategy for child marriage prevention. The rationale behind this approach is that immediate economic opportunities would provide an acceptable alternative to marriage and increase the value and contribution of the daughter to her parental family. Furthermore, direct cash in the hands of families may increase their sense of economic security or allow for upward mobility. This reduces both the economic and social pressure to marry a daughter early. These financial incentives are sometimes tied to educational investments in daughters and/or to the condition that they not marry until age
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