Ethiopia – Program Delays & Reduces Child Marriage

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https://www.popcouncil.org/publications/popbriefs/pb15(1)_3.html?utm_source=PB151&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PB151

July 2009, Vol. 15,
No. 1

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.