More Than Brides Alliance: Baseline report, Niger

Mulauzi²,

Mkandawire³

et al. 2021

BMC Public Health

Self Cite

Background Child marriage in Malawi is a significant problem with 42.1% of women 20–24 married by age 18. In 2017 the Malawi government formalized legislation to make marriage under age 18 illegal; violators are subject to fines. While leveraging laws to reduce child marriage is common, the enactment of laws and their enforcement has led to some novel practices. One such practice observed in Malawi is marriage withdrawal, where the community intervenes when a child marriage has taken place to force the girl to return to her natal home. Methods This paper is a qualitative analysis of perceptions regarding marriage withdrawal. We conducted focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with married and unmarried adolescents, parents of adolescents, and key community members in Mangochi and Nkhata Bay. Data were collected as part of an evaluation of the More Than Brides Alliance program aimed at delaying marriage and improving access to sexual and reproductive health services in Malawi. Results The knowledge that violation of marriage laws entails substantial fines is widespread and marriage withdrawals are seen by some respondents as a way of enforcing the spirit of child marriage laws while avoiding fines. Some respondents suggest that enforcement of marriage laws has an unintended effect of driving marriages underground. One important disconnect between the laws and the realities of child marriage practices in these communities is that the law holds parents responsible for the marriage and for preventing it, while parents do not necessarily exercise control, particularly when the marriage is precipitated by pregnancy. While parents and other adults view withdrawals as an acceptable resolution of a problematic child marriage, girls noted many drawbacks for withdrawn girls such as stigma and limited education and livelihood opportunities once withdrawn. Conclusions Our exploration of perceptions about marriage laws suggest that the imposition of fines may have some unintended consequences, both driving the practice underground and encouraging practices to evade fines, and may be associated with unintended consequences for adolescent girls. Programs to address child marriage should include other approaches that address more distal drivers including poverty and lack of alternatives to child marriage. Trial registration This work is part of an RCT registered August 4, 2016 in the AEA RCT registry identified as: AEARCTR-0001463. See: https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/1463

Section: Child Marriage and Adolescent Childbearing In Malawimentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptions of minimum age at marriage laws and their enforcement: qualitative evidence from Malawi

Mulauzi²,

Mkandawire³

et al. 2021

BMC Public Health

Self Cite

“…Over the past several decades, data show declines in child marriage globally-with the proportion of girls married by age 18 decreasing from 25% in 2008 to 21% in 2018 [14]-as well as across most impacted regions, however, there are significant discrepancies in trends between regions [15]. Fig 1 shows trendlines for the prevalence of marriage before age 18 (among women ages [20][21][22][23][24] from 1988 to present in UNICEF/UNFPA Global Programme to End Child Marriage countries where data are available prior to 2000. While the number of available datapoints is inconsistent across settings, trendlines show that while child marriage is declining everywhere, this is not occurring at the same rate across settings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community-based empowerment program to delay marriage: Results from the More Than Brides Alliance intervention in India, Malawi, Mali and Niger

Saul

Chau³

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

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The More Than Brides Alliance (MTBA) implemented an intervention in India, Malawi, Mali and Niger from 2017 to 2020. The holistic community-based program included girls’ clubs focused on empowerment and sexual and reproductive health knowledge; work with parents and educators; community edutainment events; and local-, regional-, and national-level advocacy efforts related to child marriage. Using a cluster randomized trial design (India and Malawi), and a matched comparison design (Niger and Mali), we evaluated the effectiveness of the program on age at marriage among girls ages 12–19 in intervention communities. Repeat cross sectional surveys were collected at baseline (2016/7), midline after approximately 18 months of intervention (2018), and endline (2020). Impact was assessed using difference-in-difference (DID) analysis, adjusted for the cluster design. We find that the intervention was successful at reducing the proportion of girls ages 12–19 married in India (-0.126, p < .001). Findings in the other countries did not show impact of the intervention on delaying marriage. Our findings suggest that the MTBA program was optimized to succeed in India, in part because it was built on an evidence base that relies heavily on data from South Asia. The drivers of child marriage in India may be substantially different from those in Malawi, Mali, and Niger and require alternate intervention approaches. These findings have implications for those designing programs outside of South Asia and suggest that programs need to consider context-specific drivers and whether and how evidence-based programs operate in relation to those drivers. Trial registration: This work is part of an RCT registered August 4, 2016 in the AEA RCT registry identified as: AEAR CTR-0001463. See: https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/1463.

“…In countries with limited educational and economic opportunities for girls—as in Niger, where approximately 70.2 percent of girls and 55.6 percent of boys ages 10–14 are not in school (Saul et al, 2017)—interventions aiming to delay marriage for girls have often focused their resources on girls’ ‘empowerment’ beyond formal education. Empowerment is highly contextual and is conceptualized and measured differently from one discipline to the next (Kabeer, 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent research on child marriage in West Africa, however, has illuminated an apparent incongruity related to girls’ voice, choice and agency in marital decision-making in Niger: while child marriage is highest in Niger, high proportions of Nigerien girls married before age 18 report that the decision to marry was their own personal choice (Plan, 2011; Saul et al, 2017; WiLDAF, 2017). A report from WiLDAF (2017) found that 84 percent of respondents in Niger believe that girls are allowed to refuse marriage before age 18, and 56.2 percent of girls married before age 18 report the decision to marry was their own.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite high rates of child marriage in Niger, there is limited research to date on what drives the practice in this context specifically. Existing research has suggested that in Niger, extreme poverty, absence of educational infrastructure, profound gender inequality, and powerful social norms supporting early marriage contribute to high rates of child marriage (Saul et al, 2017; WiLDAF, 2017). Islam undoubtedly has a strong influence on Nigerien culture and society (Muslims account for approximately 99 percent of the population [INS and ICF International, 2013]) and likely plays a role in shaping discourses and behaviors related to marriage; however, this influence is expected to vary across the country in relation to different interpretations of Islam.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Voice Without Choice? Investigating Adolescent Girls’ Agency in Marital Decision-making in Niger

Saul

Diarra

Progress in Development Studies

et al. 2020

Self Cite

This article uses qualitative data from Niger to examine adolescent girls’ perceptions of their own agency in marriage decisions and contextual factors influencing these perceptions. We find that girls make marital decisions within a context that stresses parental consent and community approval, places a high value on obedience, and is constrained by limited opportunities, gendered distribution of labor, and dominant social norms promoting an early and narrow ‘window of opportunity’ for marriage. Findings demonstrate that interventions aiming to delay marriage in Niger must work to influence both community norms supporting child marriage and girls’ own motivations in martial decision-making.