Minimum marriage age laws, child marriage rates and adolescent birth:
Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa
Abstract
This paper examines associations between minimum marriage age laws, child marriage rates and
adolescent birth in 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Two data sources are used: the
Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) from each country and the Child Marriage Database
created by the Maternal and Child Health Equity (MACHEquity) research program at McGill
University. The paper first assesses whether there is an association between consistent minimum
marriage age laws of 18 years or older for girls and child marriage rates; and secondly, whether
there is an association between consistent minimum marriage age laws of 18 years or older for
girls and adolescent birth rates. Law consistency refers to where the general minimum marriage
age, the minimum marriage age with parental consent and the age of sexual consent for girls,
were all set at 18 years or older. Using multivariable models with robust standard errors to
account for household clustering, we controlled for poverty, educational attainment, religion and
rural or urban location. Holding these factors constant, the prevalence of child marriage and
giving birth as an adolescent were 40 percent [prevalence ratio (PR) = 0.60, 95% confidence
interval (95% CI) = 0.55 – 0.66] and 25 percent (PR= 0.75, 95% CI = 0.73 – 0.78) lower,
respectively, in countries with consistent minimum marriage age laws of 18 years or over
compared to countries with inconsistent laws. While still to be confirmed by quasi-experimental
analyses, the results are consistent with the hypothesis that marriage laws protect against the
exploitation of girls.
KEYWORDS: ADOLESCENT HEALTH, MARRIAGE POLICY, EARLY MARRIAGE,
TEENAGE PREGNANCY, CHILDREN, ADOLESCENT MOTHER
Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
1. Introduction
Child marriage is widely acknowledged as a harmful socio-cultural practice that is both a cause
and outcome of human rights violations.1,2 Defined as marriage or cohabitation before the age of
18 years old,3,4 child marriage undermines a girl’s ability to exercise her right to autonomy, live a
life free from violence or coercion and it compromises her right to education. 1,2,5 There is often
explicit acknowledgement that the marriage is expected to result in childbirth.5,6 Thus child
marriage also permits sexual exploitation under the guise of marriage and places a girl’s health at
risk. Additionally, children of adolescent mothers start life at a disadvantage thus perpetuating a
cycle of poverty and relative deprivation.5
Two main conventions aim to protect children in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), namely Article 1 of
the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and Article 21(2) of the
1990 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC). All African countries
except for Somalia have ratified the CRC, which describes several child rights violated by child
marriage, without expressly referring to child marriage.7 African countries were however underrepresented in the CRC drafting process and felt the need for a regional convention that
complements the CRC, while addressing the specific realities of African children.8 The ACRWC
thus emphasizes that signatories need to take effective action to end child marriage, set the
minimum age of marriage at 18 years and make the registration of all marriages compulsory.9 As
of January 2014, all African Union member countries had signed the ACRWCa, though seven
have yet to ratify it.9
a
Countries that have signed but not ratified the ACRWC are: Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sahrawi
Arab Democratic Republic, Somalia, Sao Tome and Principe, South Sudan and Tunisia. Sudan and Egypt ratified with
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Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
The majority of SSA countries are, in principle, legally bound by the terms of these agreements.
In practice, political will to change marriage laws varies considerably and efforts have been
largely inconsistent. For example, 37 out of 41 SSA countries (90%) have nationally legislated
minimum marriage ages of 18 years or older for girls.b However, 12 of these 37 countries allow
marriage before age 18 with parental consent, allowing parents to marry off their daughters as a
matter of course.c Furthermore, almost all SSA countries have exceptions allowing children to
marry under customary law or other circumstances (such as pregnancy), without specifying an
absolute minimum age for these marriages.
Inconsistent legal proscription is problematic because child marriage in Sub-Saharan Africa has
been practiced for generations and is still seen as a culturally legitimate way of protecting
girls.2,10 In addition, factors contributing to the demand and supply of child brides continue to
plague the region such as poverty, high fertility rates, poor educational opportunities, gender
roles and economic shocks from unemployment or HIV/AIDS.6,10,11 Consequently, poor parents
with limited resources may have financial incentives for marrying girl children early, as the costs
of raising and educating girls are weighed against the immediate promise of dowry. Allowing
child marriage with parental consent and other exceptions may thus provide official sanctioning
of a harmful custom. Setting clear and consistent laws against child marriage may be the first
reservations and do not consider themselves bound by Article 21(2) regarding child marriage. Botswana does not consider itself
bound by Article 2 that defines a child as ‘every human being below the age of 18 years.’
b
Four SSA countries do not have national minimum marriage ages of 18 or over: Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Sudan. The eight
SSA countries that are not captured in the 2012 MACHEquity child marriage policy database are: Botswana, Cape Verde,
Djibouti, Eritrea, Mauritius, Réunion South Sudan and Seychelles.
c
Countries with a national minimum marriage age of 18 or over and a parental consent age of less than 18 are (parental consent
age in parentheses): Burkina Faso (17) Gabon (15) Kenya (16) Malawi (16) Mozambique (16) Niger (15) Sao Tome & Principe
(14) Senegal (16) Swaziland (16) Tanzania (15) Zambia (16) Zimbabwe (16).
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Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
step in curbing the practice and possibly improving key population dynamics in sub-Saharan
Africa.
A substantial and growing body of empirical evidence reveals clear associations between child
marriage, adolescent birth and various maternal and child health outcomes. Girls who marry
before the age of 18 years are more likely to have children as adolescents.10-14 Moreover,
adolescent childbirth is associated with serious obstetric outcomes relative to adult
childbearing.15-18 For instance, compared to women over the age of 20, girls giving birth between
the ages of 10 and 14 years are five to seven times more likely to die from child birth, and girls
giving birth between the ages of 15 and 19 years are twice as likely.19 It bears repeating that the
vast majority of adolescent births in sub-Saharan Africa occur within a marriage or union.
Children of adolescent mothers also have poorer outcomes compared to older mothers, including
lower birth weights, higher neonatal mortality rates, higher morbidity, stunting and mortality
rates.16,20-23
Marriage before the age of 18 years is also an important determinant of women’s reproductive
behaviour and health; compared to those who marry after age 18, child marriage is associated
with a greater proportion of multiple unwanted pregnancies, higher total fertility rates, obstetric
fistula, increased exposure to intimate partner violence and higher HIV prevalence rates. 6,18,24-31
Additionally, Clark et al.29 found that mean spousal age differences are higher among women
who married as children relative to those who married as adults. This may constrain their ability
to negotiate with their husbands and may also compromise control over their own reproductive
health. In other words, child marriage adds ‘another layer of vulnerability’ over and above
background characteristics associated with adolescent childbirth, such as lower education,
poverty and living in rural areas.26
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Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
The literature reviewed shows that studies of child marriage mostly focus on South Asia
resulting in little empirical evidence about sub-Saharan Africa. This is a significant oversight
given the disproportionate burden of child marriage in the region. A United Nations Children’s
Fund (UNICEF) report on child marriage found that 46% of 15–24-year-olds in South Asia were
married before they reached 18, compared to 37% of 15 to 24-year-olds in sub-Saharan Africa.32
However, 15 of the 20 most affected countries are in sub-Saharan Africa (Table I). In Niger for
example, three quarters of 20 to 24 year olds were married before the age of 18.32 In other words,
sub-Saharan African countries have some of the highest rates of girl child marriage in the world
but have been neglected from rigorous research on child marriage.
[Insert Table I]
There is global consensus on the importance of setting minimum marriage laws at 18 years, as
well as substantial evidence of the link between child marriage, adolescent birth and reproductive
health. Yet to the best of our knowledge, there are no studies that examine child marriage from a
policy perspective. This study will thus make a much needed contribution to the literature by
examining the association between minimum marriage age laws, child marriage and adolescent
birth in Sub-Saharan Africa. The severe reproductive health and infant morbidity concerns
exacerbated by child marriage and adolescent birth increase the need for analysis of prevention
efforts, particularly those centered on marriage laws.
2. Sample
We merged information from two sources: the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and the
Child Marriage Database. The DHS is funded by the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) in order to provide low- and middle-income countries with data needed
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Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
to monitor and evaluate population, health and nutrition programs on a regular basis. This paper
focused on responses to the DHS women’s questionnaire which collects information about socioeconomic characteristics, reproductive history, maternity care, sexual activity and contraceptive
use. Health histories and anthropometric data are also collected for children younger than five
years of age.33
The longitudinal Child Marriage Database was created by McGill University’s MACHEquityd
research program for 121 low- and middle-income countries currently included in the
Demographic Household Surveys (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) by
UNICEF. The Child Marriage Database, created through a systematic review of marriage
legislation, civil codes and child protection legislation from 1995 to 2012, includes such
indicators as: the legal minimum age for marriage as well as various exceptions permitting
marriage at younger ages. Information is captured for both girls and boys, which allows for the
analysis of gender inequalities in marriage laws. The study is limited to girls because child
marriage affects more girls than boys and because many of the health risks are specific to girls,
such as those arising from adolescent birth.5
The data source for the age of sexual consent is the Family Online Safety Institute’s (FOSI)
Global Resource and Information Directorye (GRID). FOSI is an international non-profit
focusing on comprehensive research of the issues, challenges and risks facing children online.
GRID is an up-to-date source providing data and information on online safety, e-learning and
country laws on sexual offenses, children and the use of the Internet in the commission of
criminal activity.
d
e
http://machequity.com/
http://www.fosigrid.org/africa/africa-edition#profile [date accessed: 2 February 2015]
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Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
Analyses were restricted to the most recent (2010-2012) DHS women’s datasets for sub-Saharan
African countries, using 2009 child marriage policy data to better approximate a cross-sectional
dataset. Additionally, the sample was restricted to women aged 15 years to 26 years as this age
cohort was more likely to have grown up in the global anti-child marriage era, signified by the
1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and Article 21(2) of the 1990 African Charter
on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC).
The countries and survey years examined were: Burkina Faso (2010), Burundi (2010), Cameroon
(2011), Ethiopia (2011), Gabon (2012), Malawi (2010), Mozambique (2011), Rwanda (2010),
Senegal (2010), Tanzania (2010), Uganda (2011) and Zimbabwe (2010).
2.1. Measures
The exposure is whether a country had three consistent minimum marriage age laws of 18 and
over for girls; that is, where the general minimum marriage age, the minimum marriage age with
parental consent and the age of sexual consent for girls, were all set at 18 years or older. The
general minimum age refers to the age at which girls can get married without parental consent.
The minimum age with parental consent refers to the age at which girls require their parents’
consent to marry. The age of sexual consent refers to the age at which a girl is legally capable of
agreeing to sexual intercourse, so that an adult male who engages in sex with her cannot be
prosecuted for statutory rape. Countries with all three laws set at 18 years or older were defined
as having consistent laws against child marriage.
The outcome variables are child marriage and adolescent birth. Child marriage is a binary
variable indicating whether age at first marriage or cohabitation was less than 18 years.
Adolescent birth is a binary variable referring to whether age at first birth was less than 20 years.
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Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
The primary question asked whether there is an association between living in a country with
three consistent minimum marriage age laws and the practice of child marriage. The secondary
question asked whether there is an association between living in a country with three consistent
laws and adolescent birth. A common set of controls were used:
•
“Poor” is a series of indicator variables representing quintiles of household wealth, with
the wealthiest quintile as the reference group; the wealth index, provided by the DHS, is
based on ownership of specific assets (e.g., bicycle, radio and television), environmental
conditions, and housing characteristics (e.g., type of water source, sanitation facilities,
materials used for housing construction).
•
Location is a binary variable defined as 1 if the household is located in a rural area and 0
if it is located in an urban area.
•
Educational attainment is a binary variable defined as 1 if the highest level of school is
secondary school or higher and 0 if it is primary school or less.
•
Religion is a categorical variable describing whether the respondent is Christian, Muslim,
not religious or follows traditional or animist religions. The reference category is
Christianity. Religion is a country-specific variable in DHS with each country using
different coding. The variable was harmonized by recoding all unspecified observations
as missing.
•
A binary variable for child marriage was used in the secondary research question to
identify respondents whose age at first marriage or cohabitation was less than 18 years.
2.2. Statistical Analyses
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Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
The study performed descriptive analyses separately for each country as well as for all countries
in the sample. Descriptive statistics include univariate statistics on the independent and control
variables and bivariate associations between consistent minimum marriage age laws and the
outcome variables. Multivariable log binomial regression models were used to examine the
association between consistent laws and child marriage on the prevalence ratio scale. Log
poisson regression models were used to estimate the association between law consistency and
adolescent birth, because log binomial models failed to converge.34 Independent variables were
added one at a time in a series of models in order to test the strength of the coefficients; and
results were presented as prevalence ratios (exponentiated regression coefficients) with 95%
confidence intervals (CI) in parentheses. The highest variance inflation factor was 2.4 indicating
little multicollinearity among the variables.
Most DHS countries use a two-stage stratified cluster-sampling design to randomly select a fixed
number of households for the survey, from primary sampling units that correspond to census
enumeration areas. All eligible members in the household are asked to participate; that is, all
women aged 15 to 49 years and men between 15 and 59 years.35 This sampling technique may
introduce intra-cluster effects, leading potentially to underestimating coefficient standard errors.
For instance, women in a particular household or region may be more likely to have married
before the age of 18 years than those in other households or regions.
There is no formal test to determine the appropriate clustering level for this type of survey
design.36 The general convention is to cluster at the highest level when possible in order to be
conservative.37 We performed the analysis with robust variance clustered alternatively at the
household and the country levels. The estimated standard errors were highly sensitive to this
choice of clustering, with the country-level clustering being considerably less precise. In the
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Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
primary analyses shown, the more precise household clustering likely underestimates the true
uncertainty. The alternative choice of clustering at the country level, with relatively small
numbers of exposed and unexposed clusters, likely overestimates the uncertainty.
Much of the published literature recommends the more conservative approach of overestimating
uncertainty, based on the assumption that Type I errors are more costly than Type II errors in the
context of statistical testing.36,37 We do not focus on statistical testing in this paper, and base
interpretation more on the point estimates than on the associated intervals. While the point
estimates may still be subject to endogeneity bias from unmeasured characteristics of countries
with consistent laws against child marriage, the widening of the confidence intervals through the
use of the robust clustering at the higher level does not correct this bias, but instead merely
provides a more conservative interpretation of the estimates by representing them in the context
of greater uncertainty. Faced with a choice between exaggerating the precision of our estimates
and exaggerating the imprecision of our estimates, we opt for the less conservative depiction in
our primary analyses because of our subjective beliefs that consistent laws are much more likely
to be beneficial than harmful. Nonetheless, the estimated intervals in Tables VII and VIII should
be viewed in light of this choice.
All descriptive analyses were weighted using the women’s individual sample weights and
STATA version 12. Multivariate analyses were not weighted, so univariate and bivariate results
are representative of the population, while multivariate analyses are only generalizable to the
sample of women.38 The final sample size in the 12 countries surveyed is 79 567 women aged
between 15 and 26 years old. We restricted our analyses to women with non-missing information
on key covariates (n=78 951). Analyses involving child marriage and adolescent birth were
performed on the entire sample of women; and those involving religion were largely restricted to
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Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
eleven countries (74 174 women), as Tanzania does not capture religious information in their
DHS surveys.
2.3. Descriptive statistics
The descriptive results are representative of 15 to 26 year old women in the population. Table II
shows the general minimum marriage age, the minimum age of marriage with parental consent
and the age of sexual consent for the selected group of countries in 2009. Countries with
minimum marriage ages of 18 and over for all three laws are classified as having consistent
marriage age laws, namely Burundi and Uganda. Rwanda and Ethiopia do not mention an
exception to the general minimum marriage age with parental consent and have an age of sexual
consent of 18 years. They are classified as having consistent marriage age laws for the purposes
of this research. Countries where one or more of these three laws are set at less than 18 years are
classified as having inconsistent laws namely:
Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gabon, Malawi,
Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Not applicable refers to legislations that do not
specify minimum ages, while missing data indicates unclear or contradictory data for the country
concerned.
[Insert Table II here]
The number of ever married women is 41 103, 23 760 (57%) of who were married before the age
of 18. Table III shows that the highest rate of child marriage is in Mozambique where almost half
of the women surveyed were married before the age of 18 (42.3%), followed closely by Burkina
Faso (41.5%) and Malawi (38%). Rwanda has the lowest prevalence of the countries surveyed
with approximately one in twenty girls in the country marrying before the age of 18 (6%).
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Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
There are generally high levels of adolescents giving birth in the countries surveyed.
Mozambique (48%), Malawi (46%) and Burkina Faso (41%) have the highest rates of
respondents giving birth to their first child before the age of 20 years. Gabon has the biggest
margin between child marriage and adolescent birth rates; twice as many women there give birth
before 20 (37%) as are married as children (18%).
[Insert Table III here]
Child marriage rates were slightly higher in countries with inconsistent laws against child
marriage (Table IV). On average, one quarter (26%) of girls who married as children in these
countries married before the age of 15 years, compared to 23% girls in consistent countries.
Ethiopia (40%), Senegal (39%) and Cameroon (36%) have the highest rates of girls marrying
before 15 in the countries surveyed. It is interesting to note that the highest proportion of girl
children marry at the age of parental consent in four countries, namely Burkina Faso (17 years),
Cameroon (15 years), Mozambique (16 years) and Zimbabwe (16 years).
[Insert table IV here]
3. Results
Table V presents child marriage rates and adolescent birth rates for all women by demographics
and law consistency, showing mean proportions for all countries, with ranges in parenthesis.
There are high levels of exposure to factors associated with child marriage among the sample of
women. The majority of women live in rural areas (64%) and have low levels of educational
attainment, with only 4% of women completing thirteen or more years of schooling. There are
however wide variations across countries, for example two thirds of women in Burkina Faso
(64%) did not go to school compared to less than 1% of women in Zimbabwe (0.5%).
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Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
On average, women living in countries with inconsistent laws against child marriage have higher
rates of child marriage and higher rates of adolescent childbearing across almost all demographic
characteristics. However, the gap (potential protective effect) is largest for women in the poorest
wealth quintile, those living in rural areas and those with the lowest educational attainment. For
example, the child marriage rate for women living in consistent countries who fall into the
poorest wealth quintile is 17% lower than for the poorest women in countries with inconsistent
laws. The child marriage rate is only 2% lower for women in consistent countries who fall into
the wealthiest quintile. With respect to religion, Christianity appears to be associated with a
lower rate of child marriage in both sets of countries. Tradition and Islam are often used in
defense of the practice of child marriage on the African continent10 so the proportion of religious
groups in each country may influence both the pervasiveness and intractability of the practice.
[Insert Table V here]
Individual country-level data in Table VI compares means for child and adult marriages. Overall,
child marriages occur on average four years before adult ones, sexual debut occurs
approximately two years earlier and the mean age at first birth occurs three years earlier. An
analysis of adolescent birth reveals that the vast majority of women who marry as children (83%)
give birth to their first child before the age of twenty. This rate is more than five times that of
women who marry as adults (15%).
[Insert Table VI here]
A series of prevalence ratio models was used to estimate the adjusted association between law
consistency and child marriage. The results are presented as adjusted prevalence ratios with
confidence intervals in parentheses (Table VII). There are significant positive associations
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Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
between poverty and child marriage as well as between location and child marriage. For instance,
with controls, women in the poorest wealth quintile are 53% more likely to enter into a child
marriage than those in the richest wealth quintile (PR = 1.53, 95% CI = 1.47 – 1.61). There is
also a significant negative association between schooling and child marriage; proceeding to
secondary school was associated with a 59% lower risk of entering into a child marriage (PR =
0.41, 95% CI = 0.39 – 0.43). The sample of women in countries with consistent minimum
marriage age laws of 18 years or over for girls are 40% less likely to marry as children (PR =
0.60, 95% CI = 0.55 – 0.66) when clustering at the household level (Table VII).
[Insert Table VII here]
A series of prevalence ratio regression models was also performed to estimate the association
between law consistency and adolescent childbirth.
The results are presented as adjusted
prevalence ratios with confidence intervals in parentheses (Table VIII). There are significant
associations between law consistency and adolescent birth as well as between child marriage and
adolescent birth. For example, with controls, women who live in countries with consistent laws
against child marriage are 25% less likely to have a child before the age of 20 years (PR = 0.75,
95% CI = 0.73 – 0.78), while those who married as children are almost five times as likely to
give birth as adolescents (PR = 4.82, 95% CI = 4.58 – 5.07).
[Insert Table VIII here]
5. Discussion
This paper finds some suggestion of a negative association between law consistency and child
marriage, and between law consistency and adolescent birth. Holding poverty, educational
attainment, religion and rural-urban location constant, women in countries with consistent
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Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
minimum marriage age laws of 18 years or over for girls were only two-thirds as likely to marry
as children and three quarters as likely to give birth as an adolescent. In other words, the
prevalence of child marriage and adolescent childbearing may be lower in households located in
countries where the general minimum marriage age, the minimum marriage with parental
consent, and the age of sexual consent are all set at 18 years or older for girls, namely Burundi,
Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda. Girls may thus be more likely to marry before the age of 18 years
and give birth before the age of 20 years in countries where these laws are inconsistent and
where there is effectively no legal proscription against child marriage, namely: Burkina Faso,
Cameroon, Gabon, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Our results are
consistent with the hypothesis that setting consistent minimum marriage age laws of 18 years,
may protect against the exploitation of girl children.
Girls who marry before the age of 18 are five times as likely to give birth as adolescents. This
result is consistent with a number of other studies indicating an association between child
marriage and early child bearing.12,13 There is sizeable literature showing that adolescent
childbearing is associated with more severe obstetric outcomes relative to adult childbearing,
such as fistula, miscarriage, preterm births, lower birth weights, stunting and higher infant and
maternal mortality rates.15-20,22,24-26 Although proportionally fewer adolescents are giving birth in
countries with consistent laws against child marriage, the percentages are high in both sets of
countries. Three quarters of women who have ever given birth in countries with inconsistent
laws (76%) and two thirds of the women who have ever given birth in countries with consistent
laws (62%), gave birth as adolescents and faced elevated risks compared to women giving birth
at 20 years or older.
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Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
This study controlled for a number of factors that have previously been associated with both
child marriage and adolescent childbearing such as rural/urban residence, religion, poverty and
education. DHS data captures total achieved education rather than educational level at the time
of marriage. The former variable may introduce potential reverse causality due to the bidirectional relationship between child marriage and education (child marriage limits education,
but girls who are not in school may also be more available for marriage). We used a binary
educational attainment variable to account for this, as well as to minimize differences in
education systems across countries. That is, we classify the highest level of educational
attainment into either none/primary or secondary/higher. Relatively low rates of girls marrying
before the age of 14 (Table IV) suggests that primary school completion is likely to precede child
marriage in most, but not all cases.
A number of other mechanisms may influence the relationship between child marriage and
adolescent childbearing. Lower levels of knowledge about contraceptive use, the often
considerable pressure to prove fertility soon after marriage and higher mean spousal age
differences in child marriages combined with lower levels of education often lead girls to
become psychologically and economically dependent on husbands and in-laws. This may
compromise a girl’s ability to control or negotiate over her own reproductive health.2,5 Region is
a potential effect modifier that was not controlled for in this descriptive paper. Country level
statistics hide the often considerable regional variation in the practice of early marriage by
country, particularly in Ethiopia where the majority of child marriages occur in the Amhara
region in the north of the country.39
The statistical significance of the results was sensitive to how we handled clustering. Angeles et
al.37 argue that it is possible to obtain both reliable point estimates and coefficient standard errors
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Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
in models with two or more levels by clustering at the highest level. This study clusters at both
the country and household level and finds that the standard errors are substantially larger in the
former (Tables not shown). Individual level variables such as child marriage and religion are
particularly sensitive when clustering at the highest level. There may therefore be a clustering
and weighting effect in these models, as the many different types of households in each country
respond differently to their respective legal and religious environments.
Several unobserved factors may influence the effectiveness of laws in the study. Legal
frameworks and policy environments governing minimum marriage ages laws differ greatly
across the continent. Some countries criminalize child marriages; some ban or invalidate
marriage below the legally prescribed minimum age; and others merely prescribe a minimum age
of marriage without expressly criminalizing or banning child marriage. Punishment also varies
from fines to prison terms or a combination of both. Moreover, laws must be communicated to
and adopted by communities, particularly in remote rural areas where child marriage is more
prevalent. They must also be enforced by local officials so corruption, limited monitoring and
enforcement capabilities and resistance from the community or even local officials may also
have an influence on law effectiveness. To the best of our knowledge, there are no studies
examining whether girls, parents and communities are aware of minimum marriage laws, or the
extent to which laws are enforced.
The study also highlights some of the challenges to curbing the practice of child marriage on a
continent where pluralistic legal systems are the norm. For instance, the minimum age of
marriage with parental consent is lower than the age of sexual consent in Gabon and Tanzania.
This is problematic because a valid marriage needs to be consummated. Many such legal
discrepancies result from the fact that marriage laws in sub-Saharan Africa are governed by
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Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
statutory as well as customary or religious laws that may be contradictory and contravene
international or regional human rights laws. Additionally, many sub-Saharan African countries
have legal exceptions allowing for underage marriage. Almost all the countries surveyed,
including Uganda with consistent 18+ minimum marriage age laws allow marriage at a younger
age with court approval or ‘under exceptional circumstances’. It is difficult to determine how
often these exceptions are used to marry children off given the general paucity of marriage data
on the continent.
Additionally, age at first marriage and age at first birth are self-reported and consequently may
be prone to bias. For example, four countries display small spikes in the proportion of girl
children married at the minimum marriage age with parental consent, namely Burkina Faso (17),
Cameroon (15), Mozambique (16) and Zimbabwe (16). It is difficult to interpret this age heaping
as marriage ages may have been misreported with a bias towards the legal age, or parents may be
waiting until the age of parental consent to marry children off.
There are thus limitations to a study involving marriage in sub-Saharan Africa, and the aim of
this paper is consequently narrow, that is to examine associations between law consistency, child
marriage rates and adolescent childbirth. The paper is designed as an exploratory cross-sectional
study using data from 2010 to 2012 and does not account for the year the minimum marriage age
law changed. Results will therefore not imply causality at this stage. The findings from this
descriptive analysis need to be tested with more rigorous approaches that control for longitudinal
variation, changing social trends and country-level confounding. This paper nonetheless provides
two important insights for policy makers. Firstly, the negative association between consistent
18+ minimum marriage laws and child marriage rates suggests that having consistent laws may
have an impact on the practice of child marriage. And secondly, the negative association between
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Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
law consistency and adolescent birth suggests that having consistent laws against marriage may
also have an impact on adolescent birth.
It is also important to note that consistent laws against child marriage may be associated with
lower child marriage rates among those who, according to the literature, are more vulnerable to
child marriage (poor, uneducated women living in rural areas). Women in countries with
consistent 18+ marriage age laws are less likely to marry before the age of 18 across all
demographic characteristics, but the gap (potential protective effect) is largest for women in the
poorest wealth quintiles, those living in rural areas and those with the lowest educational
attainment. For example, the child marriage rate for rural women living in countries with
consistent laws is 17% lower than for rural women in countries with inconsistent laws, while the
child marriage rate is only 7% lower for women in consistent countries who live in urban areas.
The purpose of this descriptive study was to assess the association between child marriage and
minimum marriage age laws in preparation for an analytical study that will address the causality
limitations inherent in cross-sectional studies. Repeated cross-sectional data and causal policy
analysis methods can be used to examine the impact of minimum marriage age laws on the
practice of child marriage and on a range of reproductive health outcomes. Higher risks of child
marriage and adolescent birth for 15 to 26 year old women living in countries with inconsistent
laws against marriage, suggest that raising minimum marriage age laws and harmonizing various
laws so that they are all consistently set at 18 years or over, is a crucial step to curbing the
harmful practice of child marriage and possibly improving maternal and child health outcomes.
Page 18 of 29
Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
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Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge and would like to thank Dr. Chris Desmond, José Mendoza
Rodriguez, Ilona Vincent and Efe Atabay for their support and assistance in preparing the
manuscript.
Page 21 of 29
Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
Table I: Countries with the highest child marriage rates in the world
% of 20 to 24 year olds who were married or in a union before 18
1
Niger
2
Chad
3
Central African Republic
4
Bangladesh
5
Guinea
6
Mozambique
7
Mali
8
Burkina Faso
9
South Sudan
10
Malawi
11
Madagascar
12
Eritrea
13
India
14
Somalia
15
Sierra Leone
16
Zambia
17
Dominican Republic
18
Ethiopia
19
Nepal
20
Nicaragua
75
68
68
66
63
56
55
52
52
50
48
47
47
45
44
42
41
41
41
41
Source: UNICEF State of the World's Children, 2013. Data from the most recent UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys
(MICS) and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) during the period 2002-2011.
Page 22 of 29
Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
Table II: Minimum marriage ages for men and women by country
Consistent 18+ laws
National minimum age
Parental consent
Male
Female
Male
Female
Burundi
21
21
n/a
18
Uganda
21
21
18
18
Ethiopia
18
18
n/a
n/a
Rwanda
21
21
n/a
n/a
Inconsistent laws against child marriage
National minimum age
Parental consent
Male
Female
Male
Female
Burkina Faso
20
20
n/a
17
Cameroon
missing data
missing data
18
15
Gabon
21
21
18
15
Malawi
18
18
15
15
Mozambique
18
18
16
16
Senegal
18
18
n/a
16
Tanzania
18
18
n/a
15
Zimbabwe
18
18
n/a
16
Age of sexual consent
Male
Female
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
Age of sexual consent
Male
Female
13
13
16
16
18
18
13
13
n/a
n/a
16
16
18
18
16
16
Source: 2009 MACHEquity child marriage database: Age of consent source: FOSIGRID. Missing data – the marriage age is
unclear based on the legislations due to contradictions. N/A – the legislations does not mention a minimum marriage age.
Page 23 of 29
Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
Table III: Child marriage rates and adolescent births by country
Country
Survey
Sample
Sample %
No. married
year
Size
before 18
Mozambique
2011
6 515
8.1
2 538
B. Faso
2010
7 889
9.9
3 144
Malawi
2010
11 226
14.3
4 297
Ethiopia
2011
8 534
10.8
2 939
Cameroon
2011
7 922
10.0
2 570
Uganda
2011
4 375
5.4
1 286
Senegal
2010
8 127
10.0
2 779
Tanzania
2010
4 778
6.0
1 191
Zimbabwe
2010
4 529
5.7
1 075
Gabon
2012
3 960
5.1
882
Burundi
2010
4 971
6.2
671
Rwanda
2010
6 741
8.4
388
Total
79 567
100%
23 760
Child
marriage %
42.3
41.5
37.6
33.6
32.2
30.4
29.3
27.9
25.4
17.6
14.2
6.0
29.8
% first birth
before 20
48.1
41.1
46.2
28.4
37.1
39.3
28.7
38.6
34.0
36.7
20.5
12.6
34.8%
Source: DHS 2010-2012. All rates are weighted.
All percentages are weighted and performed on the sample of women aged 15 to 26 years old (N= 79 567).
Parental consent refers to minimum marriage age with parental consent
Page 24 of 29
Parental
consent
16
17
15
n/a
15
18
16
15
16
15
18
n/a
16.7
Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
Table IV: Proportion of child marriages by age and country
Proportion of child marriages by age of marriage
Countries with consistent laws against child marriage
13 or
14 years
15 years
16 years
17 years
younger
Burundi
5.1
9.1
16.3
27.6
41.9
Uganda
13.6
10.6
21.2
26.0
28.6
Ethiopia
25.8
14.1
23.4
18.7
18.0
Rwanda
4.6
7.1
12.7
30.7
45.0
Mean (%)
12.3
10.2
18.4
25.8
33.4
Countries with inconsistent laws against child marriage
Burkina Faso
7.2
13.5
22.1
26.6
30.6*
Cameroon
18.9
17.5
22.6*
19.9
21.1
Gabon
13.1
15.8
18.5
24.6
28.0
Malawi
9.7
11.6
20.6
28.2
29.9
Mozambique
14.8
15.3
22.3
26.3*
21.2
Senegal
23.1
15.9
22.2
18.7
20.2
Tanzania
6.2
11.2
21.2
31.3
30.2
Zimbabwe
4.7
9.0
19.6
29.3*
37.4
Mean (%)
12.2
13.7
21.1
25.6
27.3
Median
age
18.8
17.5
16.7
20.3
18.3
Parental
consent
18
18
n/a
n/a
17.1
17.0
18.3
17.3
16.9
17.3
17.7
18.3
17.5
17
15
15
15
16
16
15
16
Source: DHS Surveys 2010-2012.
All proportions are weighted percentages of all respondents who married before the age of 18 (N= 23 760)
Weighted median age of marriage for all women in each country
Parental consent refers to minimum marriage age with parental consent.
* Indicates the largest proportion of girl children marrying at the minimum marriage age with parental consent.
Page 25 of 29
Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
Table V: Child marriage and adolescent birth rates by demographics and law consistency.
Child marriage rates
Adolescent birth rates
Sample
Consistent laws
Inconsistent
Consistent laws
Inconsistent
Distribution
laws
laws
Mean
Mean
Mean
Mean
Mean
(Min, Max)
(Min, Max)
(Min, Max)
(Min, Max)
(Min, Max)
Poorest
16.2
29.4
46.6
32.7
52.4
(13.7, 19.4)
(9.6, 45.5)
(26.1, 58.4)
(17.9, 50.5)
(48.4, 57.1)
Poor
18.2
25.7
41.6
30.0
47.5
(16.6, 20.2)
(5.4, 41.5)
(23.5, 55.2)
(13.2, 50.0)
(38.3, 54.8)
Middle
19.5
23.3
36.3
27.3
43.3
(17.4, 22.6)
(6.2, 39.3)
(20.1, 51.1)
(11.8, 43.6)
(24.9, 53.7)
Rich
20.8
18.9
29.2
22.3
37.1
(18.9, 24.4)
(5.5, 25.0)
(5.5, 47.2)
(11.1, 34.1)
(20.8, 53.8)
Richest
25.4
13.0
14.8
18.1
22.7
(21.6, 29.3)
(3.9, 17.5)
(7.8, 20.9)
(10.2, 27.1)
(15.6, 35.0)
Rural
Urban
Christian
Muslim
Traditional
No religion
None
Primary
(1-6 years)
Secondary
(7 – 12 years)
Post-secondary
(13 + years)
Total (79 567)
63.9
(10.3, 88.5)
36.1
(11.5, 89.7)
23.4
(6.3, 83.9)
13.3
(4.4, 18.7)
40.1
(27.8, 50.9)
20.7
(15.6, 30.1)
27.1
(12.6, 42.0)
19.2
(12.9, 29.9)
46.9
(38.8, 54.6)
29.7
(18.4, 42.2)
73.1
(4.2, 98.1)
23.8
(0.3, 95.4)
0.9
(0, 5.6)
2.2
(0, 9.1)
20.3
(5.8, 31.8)
27.6
(10.9, 38.0)
n/a
24.0
(12.3, 38.1)
37.5
(24.0, 47.3)
n/a
28.0
(24.8, 31.2)
25.8
(10.6, 40.8)
40.9
(20.5, 58.2)
51.5
(10.1, 80.8)
42.4
(31.1, 59.0)
42.5
(39.1, 45.8)
34.6
(18.3, 47.4)
45.8
(29.1, 56.1)
61.5
(54.4, 72.0)
48.3
(36.4, 66.7)
21.2
(0.5, 63.8)
34.7
(8.2, 71.2)
40.3
(13.7, 85.7)
3.8
(0.7, 10.9)
39.0
(18.8, 58.4)
20.5
(5.5, 38.5)
10.5
(2.2, 22.7)
2.6
(0 , 7.1)
21.6%
52.3
(35.1, 53.9)
38.2
(21.4, 58.1)
18.4
(6.6, 25.9)
4.3
(0, 12.4)
33.4%
43.4
(28.4, 62.3)
23.9
(12.6, 44.6)
15.0
(5.9, 35.8)
5.2
(2.6, 6.9)
24.4%
58.2
(42.9, 67.7)
44.9
(22.8, 60.3)
27.5
(7.8, 38.0)
6.7
(0.3, 24.0)
39.5%
Source: DHS 2010-2012
Child marriage rate, mean proportion of all women aged 15 to 26 years, whose age at first marriage was less than 18. Adolescent
birth rate, mean proportion of all women aged 15 to 26 years whose age at first birth was less than 20 years (N= 79 567).
Page 26 of 29
Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
Table VI: Country level data by law consistency
Countries with consistent Laws
Mean age at first Mean age at first
Mean age of
marriage
birth
sexual debut
Child
Adult
Child
Adult
Child
Adult
Burundi
16.4
20.1
17.1
20.4
15.9
17.6
Uganda
15.8
20.0
16.5
19.3
15.1
16.7
Ethiopia
15.0
19.9
17.0
20.5
14.7
18.1
Rwanda
16.5
21.0
17.6
20.8
16.0
17.6
Mean
15.9
20.3
17.1
20.3
15.4
17.5
Countries with inconsistent laws
Mean age at first Mean age at first
Mean age of
marriage
birth
sexual debut
Child
Adult
Child
Adult
Child
Adult
Burkina Faso
16.0
19.6
17.1
20.0
15.8
17.6
Cameroon
15.4
20.4
16.5
19.2
15.3
16.7
Gabon
15.8
20.7
16.7
18.1
15.2
16.3
Malawi
16.0
19.6
16.8
19.4
15.2
16.9
Mozambique
15.6
20.1
16.4
18.9
14.8
16.1
Senegal
15.2
20.5
16.4
20.2
15.3
18.2
Tanzania
16.1
20.1
17.0
19.2
15.1
16.6
Zimbabwe
16.3
20.3
17.0
19.9
16.1
18.8
Mean
15.8
20.2
16.7
19.4
15.4
17.2
% giving birth
before 15
Child
Adult
4.9
0.1
13.4
0.8
7.5
0.0
3.5
0.1
7.3
0.3
% giving birth
before 20
Child
Adult
87.0
9.6
88.3
17.9
72.3
6.2
90.8
7.7
84.6
10.4
% giving birth
before 15
Child
Adult
4.3
0.1
13.6
1.2
12.6
2.6
7.7
0.5
11.4
1.9
14.9
0.5
5.7
1.0
3.7
0.2
9.2
1.0
% giving birth
before 20
Child
Adult
81.0
12.8
78.5
17.5
74.4
28.6
88.6
20.6
78.3
26.0
75.9
9.2
86.1
20.3
84.6
16.7
80.9
18.9
Source: DHS 2010-2012
Weighted means of women 15 to 26 years old in each country (N=79 567). Adolescent rates are weighted proportions of women
in each country. The total number who married as children in all countries is 23 759 and total number who married as adults is 17
343.
Page 27 of 29
Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
Table VII: Prevalence ratio models for associations between law consistency and child marriage, household level
clustering.
Child marriage
Consistent 18+ laws
Richest quintile (ref)
Richer
Middle
Poorer
Poorest
Model 1
(N = 79 567)
Model 2
(N = 79 567)
Model 3
((N = 79 547)
Model 4
(N = 79 547)
Model 5
(N = 74 173)
0.64***
(0.58 to 0.70)
0.66***
(0.60 to 0.73)
0.58***
(0.53 to 0.64)
0.58***
(0.52 to 0.63)
0.60***
(0.55 to 0.66)
1.69***
(1.61 to 1.78)
2.04***
(1.95 to 2.14)
2.28***
(2.18 to 2.38)
2.61***
(2.49 to 2.73)
1.40***
(1.33 to 1.46)
1.51***
(1.44 to 1.58)
1.63***
(1.56 to 1.70)
1.74***
(1.66 to 1.82)
1.33***
(1.26 to 1.39)
1.41***
(1.34 to 1.48)
1.50***
(1.42 to 1.57)
1.60***
(1.53 to 1.68)
1.29***
(1.23 to 1.36)
1.35***
(1.28 to 1.42)
1.45***
(1.38 to 1.52)
1.53***
(1.47 to 1.61)
0.37***
(0.35 to 0.38)
0.38***
(0.36 to 0.39)
0.41***
(0.39 to 0.43)
1.14***
(1.10 to 1.19)
1.19***
(1.14 to 1.24)
Primary school or less (ref)
Secondary school or higher
Urban location (ref)
Rural location
Christian (ref)
Muslim
1.25***
(1.20 to 1.30)
1.31***
(1.24 to 1.39)
1.23***
(1.15 to 1.31)
Traditional
No religion
Source: DHS 2010-2012
Household level clustering.
95% confidence level in parentheses. Indicates significance at: *p<0.05. **p<0.01. *** p<0·001. +p<0·10.
N=79 567 women aged 15 to 26 years old.
Page 28 of 29
Minimum marriage age laws and child marriage in Africa
Table VIII: Prevalence ratio models for associations between law consistency and adolescent birth, household level
clustering.
Adolescent birth
Consistent 18+ laws
Child marriage
Richest quintile (ref)
Richer
Middle
Poorer
Poorest
Model 1
(N = 79 567)
Model 2
(N = 79 567)
Model 3
(N = 79 567)
Model 4
(N = 79 547)
Model 5
(N = 74 173)
0.77***
(0.74 to 0.80)
5.09***
(4.86 to 5.33)
0.78***
(0.75 to 0.81)
4.90***
(4.67. to 5.14)
0.76***
(0.73 to 0.79)
4.74***
(4.53 to 4.97)
0.77***
(0.74 to 0.80)
4.75***
(4.53 to 4.98)
0.75***
(0.73 to 0.78)
4.82***
(4.58 to 5.07)
1.15***
(1.11 to 1.18)
1.20***
(1.16 to 1.24)
1.23***
(1.19 to 1.28)
1.27***
(1.23 to 1.32)
1.12***
(1.08 to 1.16)
1.16***
(1.11 to 1.20)
1.18***
(1.14 to 1.23)
1.21***
(1.16 to 1.27)
1.14***
(1.10 to 1.18)
1.19***
(1.14 to 1.24)
1.22***
(1.16 to 1.28)
1.26***
(1.19 to 1.32)
1.14***
(1.10 to 1.18)
1.19***
(1.14 to 1.24)
1.22***
(1.16 to 1.27)
1.26***
(1.20 to 1.33)
0.87***
(0.84 to 0.89)
0.86***
(0.83 to 0.88)
0.86***
(0.83 to 0.89)
0.95**
(0.92 to 0.98)
0.95**
(0.92 to 0.98)
Primary school or less (ref)
Secondary school or higher
Urban location (ref)
Rural location
Christian (ref)
Muslim
0.87***
(0.84 to 0.89)
0.94*
(0.89 to 0.99)
1.10***
(1.05 to 1.15)
Traditional
No religion
Source: DHS 2010-2012
Household level clustering.
95% confidence level in parentheses. Indicates significance at: *p<0.05. **p<0.01. *** p<0·001. +p<0·10.
N=79 567 women aged 15 to 26 years old.
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