A Paper presented on Child Marriage in Sierra Leone at the UNICEF learning program
on Advances in Social Norms and Social Change
At Pennsylvania University
16th July, 2010
By Rosina Conteh
Executive Summary
This paper analysed the situation of girls in Sierra Leone as they face the challenges of the
“harmful traditional practice” of child marriage. It brought out the clear picture through
statistical evidence on the precarious situation of the girls especially those living in the rural
area. Child marriage is one form of sexual and gender-based violence which UNICEF
country office is supporting the Government to eradication throughout the country.
The paper also shows that, even though UNICEF is using a human rights-based approach in
its implementation, this seems to be insufficient. There is a need to use a social norm
approach which will re-categorised the issue, engage networks and other stakeholders;
change the script and sought to address the normative expectations of the parents, men who
chose to marry younger girls and even the children and it is only then it will make some
headway in the abandonment of the practice.
The paper recommends that among other things, UNICEF continues its support to the
Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s’ Affairs and the local government in the
district to take the bottom-up approach by engaging community members mainly
stakeholders in the process; to support an information management system that will
document the success stories of communities abandoning the practice and to publicly share
them.
A study to understand the situation of the girls to be undertaken and this should include
questions to understand social norms dimensions of the practice.
Background
Sierra Leone, like many other developing countries has a high proportion of child marriages.
The Multiple Cluster Survey conducted in Sierra Leone in 2005 (MICS 2005), indicated that
27% of girls were married before age 15 years, and 62% of girls were married before age
18 years. When disaggregation was made for rural and urban localities, the results for
marriage before 18 years are 47% for urban localities, and 68% for rural localities.
Child Marriage and Teenage Pregnancy: The proportion of women aged 15-49 years who
were first married by age 15 and 18 years are 27% and 62% respectively. Almost 30% of
girls have given birth before age 18 years.
The figures above show how child marriage impacts the lives of girls in the country.
Among others vices, it leads them to bonded labour , commercial sexual exploitation and
violence . Because they cannot abstain from sex or insist on condom use, child brides are
often exposed to such serious health risks as premature pregnancy, sexually transmitted
infections and, increasingly prevalence on HIV/AIDS. Hence the high maternal and child
mortality in the country which is the highest in the world (Human Development Index,
2008)
Why child marriage
Child marriage in these communities is associated with financial benefits for the girl’s
family: The dowry provided comes in the form of financial compensation, gifts and/or
services. In order for parents to make more money on their children, they would prefer to
marry them off very young. It is also seen as a “protection mechanism” for girls against
involvement in early sexual activities. It is also a way of parents relinquishing the full
responsibities of the girl to the husband.
Marrying younger girls is preferred by men in these communities in that, the girls are mostly
virgins and the men believe that society is expected them to marry virgins as this earns them
status in their communities.
Men are also very much willing to pay more money as bride price when the girls are much
younger than when they are older.
Child marriage is seen as traditional practice with no sanctions at the community level. This
is so because it is socially accepted and normal for a man to marry a child with no form of
punishment. Even though there is a national law prohibiting the act, yet the practice is still
going on. Little or no attention is paid to the law.
Interventions by UNICEF in the abandonment of child marriage
As a result of the many problems associated with child marriage as stated above, UNICEF
Sierra Leone country office is working with the government on the abandonment of this and
other forms of sexual and gender-based violence against children. This is done through:
 Supporting the government to develop laws to protect children and hence the adoption
in June 2007 a Child Right Act. This law is a landmark in terms of children’s rights
in Sierra Leone. One of the articles in the Chid Rights Act specifies that children
cannot be married before the age of 18 years.
 UNICEF is also providing strategic direction to the government and its child
protection partners on how to “roll out” this law in all communities throughout the
country. This is to inform the entire nation of the Child Rights Act and get their
commitment to its full implementation in the protection of all children.
 To ensure that the law is understood and implemented, UNICEF is supporting the
building and strengthening of structures in communities to monitor compliance. Child
Welfare Committees (CWCs), Child Panels, School Management Committers (SMC)
and a Family Support Unit established in all police stations in all communities
throughout the country to ensure that the law is enforced .
Using a social norm direction in addressing child marriage in Sierra Leone
According to Cristine Bichieri, she described a social norm as social constructions which
depend on the mutual beliefs and conditional preferences of members of the relevant
population. A norm she said is a variety of behaviours and accompanying expectations of
those who follow them. She further stated that, the very existence of a social norm depends
on a sufficient number of people believing that it exists and pertains to a given type of
situation, expecting that enough other people are following it in those kinds of situations.
This definition brings me to practice of child marriage. People are said to have different
reasons for conditionally preferring to follow a norm. Parents prefer to marry their
daughters off young when other parents marry their daughters off young. If other parents did
not do so, parents would prefer to marry them off later. The normative expectations
condition says that expectations are believed to be reciprocal. That is, only do I expect
others to conform, but I also believe they expect me to conform.
Reasons advanced above on why people carry out the practice of marrying younger girls in
communities could be said to be a normative belief: I believe a sufficiently large number of
people thinks that I have an obligation to conform to R in the appropriate circumstances.
Doing what they think others are expecting of them could be quite wrong because there is
no empirical evidence to support their beliefs. They might just be acting what they think
others think and not what they know they think.
The new direction for UNICEF
Having identified the problem by using a social norm approach, for a change to occur in its
abandonment, it is necessary to change people’s expectations within the relevant reference
group. In this light, we would use Ryan muldon’s analysis on social network. In this
analysis, he stated that instead of just thinking about individual or groups, we can enrich our
understanding by thinking about relationships.
Relationships are important in that, they enable us to know who is trusted and respected in
communities, who talks to who, which individuals are more important than other. This is
because the empirical and normative beliefs of the people do not change unless they are
affected by those in the network.
The creation of a good network within a community is a good entry point in programme
intervention and this will ensure ownership.
On the area of sanction/ punishment on child marriage, a useful tool that could be used in
analysing the situation is Antanas Mockus’ regulatory mechanism framework. In the
framework Mockus emphasised the role of legal norms which he described as the
admiration for the law and is support by sanction, moral norms which are self-gratification
and support by fear of guilt and social norms which are social recognition and supported by
fear and rejection.
Mockus said that these three norms are independent of each other but for any social change
to take place , there has be to a harmony among all of them. For example, legal norms can
only be effective, if they are supported by social sanctions such as rejection of an individual
by the community for committing an act and he/she should also feel guilty for what he has
done.
Then sanction in the form of punishment or fines could be effective.
Mockus’ advice should be followed here in that, for an intervention in legal regulation to be
accepted, it is important that discussions be initiated around the transformation of the law,
so that people understand its objectives and adhere to it voluntarily. Acting on legal
regulation should be accompanied by moral and cultural mobilization. Marrying the girls
young and the payment of dowries cannot be stopped in the country because, as seen in
Mockus’ analysis, stopping the practice of child marriage has to come from the people.
They should be part of the process of making the law and be able to understand it objectives
and then adhere to it voluntarily.
What can UNICEF do better
 Raise awareness of legal law throughout the country. The level of participation of
community member on the development of the present law development was very low
or non-existence in some area. This makes it very important for the community to be
educated on its existence.
 Ensure community ownership of the process. If the laws are there for the people, they
should not only know about them, they should embrace them voluntarily. When they
feel part of them, they will support social and moral sanction for their enforcement.
Hence the use of strong social networks.
On the issue of child marriage seen as providing a “protection” for the young brides in the
society, in the first place, the girls are deprived of going to school and they do not have skill
that will provide them with a source of livelihood. This then, brings us to the use of the
another important tool learnt in the course which is the Kishori Abhijan case study.
The study on Kishori Abhijan in Bangladesh, a UNICEF initiated project on the
“empowerment of Adolescents” could be replicated to empower the adolescent girls in
Sierra Leone. Girls in both countries have a common predicament been pulled into
underage marriage through arranged relationships and dowry practice usually arranged by
their parents.
An intervention in Sierra Leone like the Kishori Abhijan project initiative aiming at
empowering adolescent girls to participate meaningfully in decisions that affect their lives
and to become agents of social change is a useful way forward in the development process
for the individual girl, her family and the country.
The other objective of Kishori abhijan initiative project of “creating and sustaining a
supportive environment for adolescent girls’ development at household and community
levels” could also be helpful in working with adolescent girls in Sierra Leone. This is also a
process of giving the adolescent girls who have missed out in school a stake in their
development.
UNICEF intervention
 A survey should be conduct to be able to identify the girls, where they are, and what
could their needs.
 An initiative to empower the girls should developed and supported
 Programmes in implementing this strategy will be included in the new country
programme of 2013