VI. Good Practices in Ending Child Marriage

A Global Perspective

Data published by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in October 2012 indicates that for the period 2000-2011, an estimated 34 percent of women aged 20 to 24 years in developing regions were married or in union before their eighteenth birthday. In 2010 this equaled nearly 67 million women. About 12 percent of them were married before age 15.[195]

The report says that in 41 countries, 27 of them in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), 30 percent or more of women aged 20 to 24 were married or in union when they were still children.[196] It notes that there has been little change in rates of global child marriage though some countries have made notable progress,[197] and that 142 million girls worldwide will be married in the next decade (during the period 2011-2020) if current trends continue.[198]

Statistics on child marriage reveal that South Asia, at 46 percent, and SSA at 37 percent, have the highest prevalence of child marriage. In the two regions, two out of five girls marry or enter into union before the age of 18.[199] In SSA, the practice is most common in West and Central Africa where 41 percent of 20-24-year-olds were married before they reached 18. The rate for East and Central Africa is also high at 34 percent.[200]

Generally, child marriage mostly affects women who live in rural areas, come from poor households, and have less schooling.[201]

International Response to Child Marriage

There is growing global momentum and support by NGOs, international agencies, governments, and high-level global leaders to address the problem of child marriage. This is in recognition of the impact of child marriage on girl’s and women’s human rights, and on development efforts. Recent major efforts include:

In 2011, The Elders—an independent group of eminent global leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela that works for peace and human rights—initiated “Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage.” Girls Not Brides brings together organisations that work to tackle child marriage at the grassroots, national, and global levels around the world.[202]

• The introduction in 2012 by the UN of the first International Day of the Girl, which had child marriage as its theme.
• Focus by the special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery in her recent report on forced marriages.[203]
• The International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act (S.414), passed by the US Senate in May 2012. The legislation recognizes child marriage as a human rights violation, establishes a strategy to prevent it and promote the empowerment of girls, integrates the issue of preventing child marriage into existing US development programs, and requires that relevant agencies collect and make available data on the rates of child marriage and its impact on meeting key development goals.[204] The bill is currently before the House Committee on Foreign Relations.[205]

Innovative programs, policies, and strategies to tackle child marriage have been developed in other countries. These programs are implemented and supported by a combination of local and international NGOs, national governments, bilateral donors, UN entities, international financial institutions, and foundations.

Many programs to end child marriage are not well documented or evaluated. There are, however, evaluations available for programs in India, Bangladesh, Egypt, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, Senegal, and Yemen. A review of the available programmatic evaluations and analysis suggest that successful efforts reach across sectors and integrate a range of approaches that address the root causes of child marriage, and simultaneously promote girls’ human rights. Five approaches seem essential in these efforts:[206]

Empowering girls with information, skills, and support networks: These programs aim to empower girls at risk of child marriage through life skills, vocational and livelihoods training, safe spaces for girls to discuss their futures, the provision of information about their options, and the development of support networks. Such interventions can help equip girls with knowledge and skills in areas relevant to their lives, including sexual and reproductive health, nutrition, and their rights under the law. Girls are empowered when and if they are able to learn skills that help them to develop a livelihood, help them to better communicate, to negotiate and advocate for themselves both in the short and long term, and to make decisions that directly affect their lives.

Improving girls’ access to quality formal education: Girls’ education, especially at the secondary level, is strongly associated with delayed marriage. Education is a right in itself, and being in school confers numerous protections and benefits for girls. Educational opportunities offer girls positive alternatives to child marriage that are generally acceptable to the family and community. From a cultural standpoint, being in school can support the perception that girls are still children and not of marriageable age. Schooling helps a girl develop social networks and acquire skills and information, which contribute to her ability to communicate, negotiate for her best interests, and participate in decisions that affect her life.

Educating and mobilizing parents and community members to change harmful social norms: Families and community elders usually make the decision for a girl to marry early. Sanctions for failing to meet social expectations for marriage are also administered by the family and broader community. Programs in this category educate parents and mobilize communities to try and change social norms and forge a more supportive, less punitive environment for girls and families who are willing and ready to change the custom of early marriage. Enlisting parents and community members helps to mitigate possible unintended consequences of girls’ participation in programs, and also reinforces a program’s messages and activities.

Enhancing the economic situation of girls and their families: Poverty and lack of viable income-generating options for girls and their families contribute to the high rate of child marriages. This approach aims to provide immediate and long-term economic opportunities for families to enable them to postpone the marriage of their daughters, and to keep them in school through secondary levels. Incentives may include loans, scholarships, subsidies, and conditional cash transfers. Increasing employment opportunities for girls through microfinance schemes or vocational training can generate viable alternatives to child marriage, especially for girls unable to continue their formal schooling. Improving girls’ economic standing can also give them a higher status in their families and on this basis, greater control over their lives. For families themselves, direct cash transfers and income-generating activities for their daughters can help to alleviate economic and social pressures that lead to early marriage.

Fostering an enabling legal and policy framework: Legislation and appropriate enforcement measures are fundamental for defending the human rights of girls at risk of child marriage. Essential components include: ensuring that domestic legislation—in line with international human rights standards—upholds the age of 18 as the minimum legal age of marriage for both males and females; promoting birth and marriage registration; and challenging harmful customs, traditions, and practices that do not comply with human rights standards—such as tolerance for gender-based violence—through national and sub-national laws and social programs.