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

(779%)
(11-88%)

SSA
WANA
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

PERCENT

= Range
Source: Mensch, 1999.

(2365%)
70
80

90

100

Child marriage: Variation within countries

Regional hot spots

Region, country

% married
by age 15

% married
by age 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
80

71.9
59.8

Percent

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

M ea n S p o u se/P a rtn er A g e
D ifferen ce

The younger the bride,

the larger the spousal age difference

14

Mean Spouse/Partner Age Difference,

by Womans 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
Marrie
d

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 912, 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.
Erulkar, Annabel and Charles Onoka. Tabulations of data from Adolescent Reproductive Health Information and
Services Survey, Central Province, Kenya, 2001, unpublished.
Erulkar, Annabel. Working with Ethiopian Youth Serving NGOs to Increase their Capacity to Monitor
Performance and Identify Gaps in Coverage, 2004.

Glynn, J.R., Caral, M., Auvert, B., Kahindo, M., Chege, J., Musonda, R., Kaona, F., & Buv, A., for the Study Group on
Heterogeneity of HIV Epidemics in African Cities. Why do young women have a much
higher prevalence of HIV
than young men? A study in Kisumu, Kenya and Ndola, Zambia. AIDS
15(suppl 4), S51-60, 2001.
Hallman, Kelly. Poverty and Unsafe Sexual Behaviors Among Young Women and Men in South Africa.
Council Working Paper, 2004.

Population

Hallman, Kelly and Judy Diers. Social Isolation and Economic Vulnerability as Risk Factors for HIV and
South Africa., forthcoming.

Pregnancy in

Haberland, Chong, Bracken. Married Adolescents: An Overview. Paper prepared for the Technical Consultation on Married
Adolescents, WHO, Geneva, Dec 9-12, 2003.
Katzive, Laura. Married Girls and the Law: Directions for Legal Advocacy, Paper prepared for the Technical
on Married Adolescents, WHO, Geneva, Dec 9-12, 2003.

Consultation

Mensch, Barbara S. Data analysis conducted for National Academy of Sciences report on "Transitions to
Developing Countries," 2004.

Adulthood in

Mensch, Barbara S. Adolescent Research and Programs: Moving Beyond the Conventional. Presentation at The World Bank
Human Development Week, Washington, March 1999.
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Santhya, K. G. and Nicole Haberland. Addressing the Social Context of Married Adolescent Girls: The First Time Parents
Project. Presentation given at the Technical Consultation on Married Adolescents, WHO, Geneva, December 9-12, 2003.