Child marriage and teenage
pregnancy in West and Central Africa
Marcelline Ntakibirora
Health/immunization
Background
• Skilled birth attendance ( 2011)
 42 % girls (26% in urban areas,
53% in rural areas) are married
before the age of 18
 .70% of girls are married before
reaching the age of 18.In Niger,
Chad and Mali 1 in 3 women are
married before turning 15
 High fertility and population
growth rates, as well as high
maternal, infant and child
mortality and morbidity rates
Child marriage (2007&2011)
 The average age of
marriage has increased
very slowly in West
and Central Africa
 Declines in child
marriage by 10% or
more (between two
MICS or DHS surveys)
in : Ghana, Liberia,
Mauritania and Sierra
Leone
Rationale
 Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone are
addressing child marriage and teenage pregnancy
from a variety approaches : advocacy for legal
reforms, community mobilisation and promotion of
reproductive health.
• Recognized need for more region-specific research
to understand what factors lead to a decrease in
child marriage and teenage pregnancy, as well as
robust evaluations of the programming in this field
Rationale
 staffs exposed to this program on advances in Social
Norms and Social Change,
 an increased understanding that child marriage is
often upheld by social norms
 Region to explore how societal forces, such as
social acceptance can play a role in the decline of
both child marriage and teenage pregnancy so that
they can be leveraged to promote a decline in both.
Child marriage: social Norm?
 Custom: this has been going on with our
forefathers, …
 Religion recommends chastity before marriage,
ought to make sure my daughter makes it : Moral
 The factual beliefs: my daughter may lose virginity,
her chances to get a good husband vanishes
 honourable families married their daughter at
puberty age to prevent having sexual activity out of
marriage, (empirical expectations), and they also
ought do the same (normative expectations)
Child marriage: social Norm?
 pregnancy out of wedlock is a shame for the
mother and disgrace for the family (social
sanction).
 For his honour, the father can kick the mother and
her daughter out of his home; he disowns his
daughter and the mother is held responsible for her
daughter’s bad behaviour (gender issue).
• mother believes that she ought to marry her
daughter as earlier as possible (normative personal
belief,
Child marriage: social Norm?
 pregnancy out of wedlock is a shame for the
mother and disgrace for the family (social
sanction).
 For his honour, the father can kick the mother and
her daughter out of his home; he disowns his
daughter and the mother is held responsible for her
daughter’s bad behaviour (gender issue).
• mother believes that she ought to marry her
daughter as earlier as possible (normative personal
belief)
Child marriage: social Norm?
• Families prefer to give their daughter in marriage
earlier (conditional preference) to protect their
honour and conform to the common practice
though mothers may be aware of the risk of abuse
by co-spouses (she probably went through the
same situation).
• Parents prefer to conform to the practice because
they believe that most of the families around
believe and do the same (social expectation) and
expect them to stick to that collective behaviour .
Child marriage: social Norm?
• Pregnancy out of wedlock is a shame for the
mother and disgrace for the family (social
sanction).
• For his honour, the father can kick the mother and
her daughter out of his home; the father disowns
his daughter and the mother is held responsible for
her daughter’s bad behaviour (gender issue)
“A wise son makes a glad father but a foolish son is
the grief of his mother (Proverbs 10:1, NKJV)”
The study has to look at
 The enabling factors in the country where slight
changes have occurred:
• the role of extra-social factors (economic, legal,
political, religious, health or educational services,
technological) in the shift
• Role of urbanisation ( change in community
interaction and dependency)
• the methodologies used: community deliberation
(Tostan), law, communication and media campaign
The study has to look at
 the normative influences and approaches that can be
used to get the family understand that a girl can be
married later and still respect the religion and procure
honour.
Because of interdependence in the community, the
study has to undertake a thorough analysis of the
reasons of this practice but bearing in mind that they
can differ from a community to another
The study in 4 to 6 countries) basically to take stock of
what has been done, learn from it and suggests better
approaches. ( cultural groups/ trans border)
.
The study has to look at
 In addition the diagnostic of the collective behaviour has to
be done to identify the changes needed and the ways to
handle them
With regards to social norms, the study has to determine:
• what is the reference network (Individuals ,Groups ,structure,
characteristics, relationship, ties( weaknesses and strengths) ,
nodes, edges, bridges ) which sustains the mutual social
expectations of letting a child marrying ,
• the conditions under which the norm is obeyed in order to
design a strategy of changing them
• identify the approach to change social expectation and
create a new norm within the network
Methodologies
• Data available collected through DHS and MICS using
KAP and focus group methodologies.
• MORES and health facilities data ( age of first
pregnancy)
• For social norms assessment, there is need of other
methodologies such vignettes but also fields
experiments
• Specific resources internal or external to contribute to
questionnaire designing and surveyors training based
on the algorithm: “understand under which conditions
people will marry chidren”
Areas to be assessed
Examples of questions
Ask actors about their beliefs about child marriage (empirical expectations): e.g: Do
you believe most of the parents believe that marry their daughter at early age is a
good thing to do? How many parents do you believe would marry their daughter early
• Hypothetical questions (about what will happen if reference network stop to marry
daughter at young age ) :
e.g in Senegal, what will happen if “ pheuls “in Mali abandon marrying their young
daughter? Your brother? Your friend? The chief?
What will you do if the Imam advises to stop?
• Check what individuals would do under different information conditions
e.g: if you were offered option to send your daughter in a school to become a doctor,
what would do? If the custom could allow to secure a husband for your daughter , will
you stay with her till her maturity?
Teen pregnancy ..early marriage
• 2 studies or one?
Target: young girl,
same actors, different circumstances and conditions (
EE& NE)
Pregnancy in wedlock ….accepted ,
Child marriage abandonment will reduce teen
pregnancy
But additional approaches needed to end teen
pregnancy
Network and references are different