Child Marriage &
Married Adolescents:
Potential Role for Faith Communities
Judy Diers
Population Council
CCIH Annual Conference -- 30 May 2005
Outline
 Current status of child marriage
– Extent of the practice
– International and national policy and law
– Programmatic void surrounding married adolescents
 Potential disadvantages of child marriage for girls
 Unique assets & position of faith-based organizations
 Three areas for potential action
Child marriage: Still with us
 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) indicate
about 38% of young women currently aged 20-24
in 50 least developed countries were married
before age 18
 If present patterns continue, over 100 million girls
will be married as children in the next decade
Child marriage: Substantial variation across the
regions of the world
Proportion of girls married before age 18, intra- and inter-regional variation
LAC
(21-39%)
Asia
(7-79%)
(11-88%)
SSA
WANA
(23-65%)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
PERCENT
= Range
Source: Mensch, 1999.
70
80
90
100
Child marriage: Variation within countries
Regional “hot spots”
Region, country
% married by age % married by age
15
18
Median age at
marriage (years)
Ethiopia
- Amhara
19
50
49
80
18.1
15.0
Mali
- Kayes
24
39
65
83
16.7
15.5
Kenya
- Nyanza
- Coast
4
4
11
25
36
32
20.5
19.4
19.9
All data are for 20-24-year-olds, DHS data (compiled by Erica Chong).
Laws Governing Child Marriage
 Convention on the Rights of the Child
 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
 Legal minimum age at marriage is 18 in majority
of countries worldwide, yet issues persist:
–
–
–
–
Enforcement
Parental consent
Applies only to civil unions
Contradictions in civil law (i.e. Tanzania)
Source: Katsive, 2003.
Lack of programs and policies for
married adolescents
Traditionally, married adolescents have been omitted
from the adolescent/youth policy and program agenda
– a dangerous omission given that:
– Most sexually active girls aged 15-19 are married
– Most births to adolescent girls take place within
marriage
Why the Omission?
 Western focus on unmarried, in-school
adolescents
 Assumption that “married” implies “adult” and
access to services/entitlements
 Marriage thought to provide protection
 Married adolescents relatively invisible and
difficult to reach – more socially isolated
Outline
 Current status of child marriage
– Extent of the practice
– International and national policy and law
– Programmatic void surrounding married adolescents
 Potential disadvantages of child marriage for girls
 Unique assets & position of faith-based organizations
 Three areas for potential action
Marriage brings many disadvantages to
adolescent girls
Married adolescents are typified by:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
High levels of unprotected sexual relations
Large age gaps with sexual partners
Intense pressure to become pregnant
Highly limited or absent peer networks
Restricted social mobility/freedom of movement
Little access to modern media (TV, radio, newspapers)
Limited education attainment and no schooling options
Source: Haberland, Chong, Bracken, 2003.
Married girls are many times more likely
to have had unprotected sexual relations
than sexually active unmarried
Percent of sexually active girls aged 15-19 who
had unprotected sex last week
Percent
80
71.9
59.8
60
43.6
Married
40
16.9
20
12.6
20.5
0
South and East
Africa
Source: Bruce and Clark, 2004.
West and Central
Africa
Latin America and
Caribbean
Unmarried
Mean Spouse/Partner Age
Difference
The younger the bride,
the larger the spousal age difference
14
Mean Spouse/Partner Age Difference,
by Woman’s Age at First Marriage
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
14-15
16-17
South America
Middle East
Former Soviet Asia
East/Southern Africa
Source: Mensch, 2003
18-19
20-21
22-23
24-25
Age at Marriage
Central America/Caribbean
South Central/South East Asia
West/Middle Africa
Even when pregnancy is not desired, child brides
are unable to negotiate condom use
100
Unmarried, Burkina Faso
Married, Burkina Faso
Unmarried, Kenya
Married, Kenya
Unarried, Zambia
Married, Zambia
80
60
Percent
42
40
20
14
20
2
9
4
0
Condom Use Among Girls Wishing to Avoid Pregnancy
Sources: Clark, 2004; Bruce and Clark, 2003.
Access to schooling
Percent enrolled in
school
Education of 15-19-year-old-girls, by marital
and parenting status
100
Married Without children
Unmarried Without children
Married - With
children
Unmarried - With
children
80
60
40
20
0
Brazil
Kenya
Nigeria
Exposure to HIV/AIDS information in the
last year, by sex and marital status
Participation in social events and media
exposure, by sex and marital status
Emerging evidence of links between early
marriage and HIV infection
Married
Unmarried
Sexually Active
% Higher
Kisumu, Kenya
32.9%
22.3%
47.5%
Ndola, Zambia
27.3%
16.5%
65.5%
Sources: Glynn (AIDS, 2001) Data from multi-center study, girls 15-19;
Bruce and Clark, Involving Married Adolescents in Adolescent Reproductive Health and
HIV/AIDS Policy, paper presented at WHO/UNFPA/PC Meeting on
married adolescents, December 2003, Geneva
Clark (SFP, 2004) Early marriage and HIV risks in sub-Saharan Africa
Married girls have more frequent sex, are less
likely to use condoms, and are more likely to have
HIV+ partners
HIV Risk factors among sexually active girls aged 15 to 19 in Kisumu, Kenya
Unmarried,
sexually active
Married
Had sex in the last week
10.9
64.4
Use condoms often/always
19.5
3.5
HIV prevalence among men
with adolescent partners
12.3
31.1
Source: Clark (SFP, 2004)
Child marriage and HIV: Risk without guidance
 Older partners
 Higher sexual frequency
 Intense pressure for pregnancy
 Greater social isolation
 Unable to benefit from any of the conventional HIV protection messages:
1.
Abstinence
2.
Reduce sexual frequency
3.
Reduce number of partners
4.
Use condoms
5.
Observe mutually monogamous relations with an uninfected partner
Outline
 Current status of child marriage
– Extent of the practice
– International and national policy and law
– Programmatic void surrounding married adolescents
 Potential disadvantages of child marriage for girls
 Unique assets & position of faith-based organizations
 Three areas for potential action
Unique position of churches and
other faith-based organizations
 Long-term view to development and transformation
 Excellent coverage in the field
 Regular contact with community (same place, same
time) in large and small groups
 Critical life transitions are marked (potential points of
intervention – baptism, confirmation, marriage …)
 Moral authority and leadership
 Responsibility to nurture and protect the children of the
community
 Trusted by the community
Outline
 Current status of child marriage
– Extent of the practice
– International and national policy and law
– Programmatic void surrounding married adolescents
 Potential disadvantages of child marriage for girls
 Unique assets & position of faith-based organizations
 Three areas for potential action
Three overlapping clusters of concern for
policy activity and public education:
1. Raising consciousness about child marriage
2. Promoting later, legal, and chosen marriage
3. Supporting married adolescent girls
1. Raising consciousness about early marriage
– Clarify and publicize local marriage laws
– Emphasize the situation of the youngest (under 15) mothers with
regard to maternal mortality and morbidity, including risk of
obstetric fistula
– Create awareness that marriage is not a sexual safety zone
– Raise awareness of the health and rights implications of large
spousal age differences and intergenerational sex
2. Promoting later, legal marriage
–
Advocate for new laws and/or enforcement of existing laws
–
Develop community-based initiatives that redefine acceptable
ages of marriage and offer social and economic supports that
allow parents and girls to delay marriage until at least 18.
–
Get girls into school on time and keep them there through
secondary school
–
Create new opportunities/safe spaces for girls (particularly
those out of school)
–
Increase girls’ access to livelihoods skills/resources
3. Supporting married adolescent girls
– Develop interventions to reduce social isolation and economic
vulnerability
– Refocus maternal and child health information and outreach to actively
engage married adolescent girls, first-time parents
– Develop HIV protection strategies, including VCT, to support girls from
engagement through the early years of marriage.
– Foster more equal and trusting relationships between new spouses
– Decrease the imminent pressure for pregnancy on the youngest brides
– De-stigmatize condoms and protection from STIs/HIV within marriage
Dialogue with faith-based
organizations
 What are faith-based organizations currently doing
to
– Raise awareness of child marriage, related health issues
– Promote delayed marriage
– Support married adolescents
 Future strategies
– Points of entry (group meetings, recognized transitions)
– Intervention ideas in the three areas above
SELECTED RESOURCES
Amin, Sajeda, Simeen Mahmud, and Lopita Huq. Baseline survey report on rural adolescents in
Bangladesh. Dhaka, Bangladesh: Ministry of Women's Affairs: Government of Bangladesh. 2002.
Bruce, Judith. Chapter 2, UNFPA/Population Council background document for the UNFPA workshop
on “Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health: Charting Directions for a Second
Generation of Programming,” May 2003.
Bruce, Judith. “Married Adolescent Girls: Human Rights, Health, and Development Needs of a
Neglected Majority,” Economic and Political Weekly, October 2003.
Bruce, Judith and Shelley Clark. “Including Married Adolescents in Adolescent Reproductive Health
and HIV Policy,” Prepared for for the Technical Consultation on Married Adolescents, WHO,
Geneva, December 9-12, 2003. Under review for publication.
Also available in Brief form: Bruce and Clark, “The Implications of Early Marriage for HIV/AIDS
Policy,” May 2004.
Clark, Shelley. “Early Marriage and HIV Risks in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Studies in Family Planning,
35(3), 2004.
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