Benin City, Nigeria - January, 2014
In this Edition of WHARC Monthly Updates, we address the issue of Child Marriage in West Africa;
- Background to Child Marriage
- Child Marriage in West Africa
- International initiatives to prevent child marriage
- Upcoming events
To learn more about WHARC's publications in the topic,
see our research.
BACKGROUND
“Child marriage is not only wrong, it is dangerous. It exposes a young girl to profound health risks from early pregnancy and difficult childbirth and it exposes her baby to complications of premature birth” Anthony Lake, Executive Director of UNICEF.
Child marriage, a formal marriage or informal union before age 18, is most common in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, however, with are big regional differences in prevalence. While the median age of first marriage is gradually increasing globally, this improvement has been limited primarily to girls of families with higher incomes and overall, the pace of change remains slow.
According to the UN, complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading causes of death for girls aged 15-19 years in developing countries. Of the 16 million adolescent girls who give birth every year, about 90 per cent are already married. UNICEF estimates some 50,000 die, almost all in low- and middle-income countries. Stillbirths and newborn deaths are 50 per cent higher among mothers under the age of 20 than in women who get pregnant in their 20s.
Causes of Child Marriage include
- Poverty
- Limited education and economic options
- Insecurity in the face of conflict
- Tradition and religion
Problems associated with chid marriage are multiple, including
- Domestic violence
- Child Marriage curtails girls' education
- Child marriage undermines reproductive health
- Premature pregnancy and maternal mortality
Tackling the persistent problem of child marriage in Africa
West Africa has the continent’s worst rates of child marriage: 49 percent of girls under 19 are living in marital unions. Child brides in West Africa are likely to be married at the very early age of 9 to 12 years, the earliest tipping point in the global south. They are also more likely to be illiterate, to be younger at first birth, to give birth to more children over their reproductive lives, to be in a polygamous union and have a lower uptake of modern family planning services than child brides in other zones of Africa and indeed South Asia.
International initiatives to prevent child marriage
UNICEF supported the passage of the Child Marriage Prohibition Act of 2006, and has since supported the development and implementation of a national strategy on child marriage that aims to coordinate programmes and policies to address both the causes and the consequences of child marriage. Working with individual states, UNICEF took part in developing state action plans and supported the establishment of girls clubs and collectives that were trained on child rights and how to work with the community to stimulate a dialogue about ending child marriage.
Experiences in contexts as diverse as Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Ethiopia, India, Niger, Senegal and Somalia show how combining legal measures with support to communities, providing viable alternatives – especially schooling – and enabling communities to discuss and reach the explicit, collective decision to end child marriage yield positive results. “Through global commitments, civil society movements, legislation and individual initiatives girls will flourish in a safe and productive environment,” said Malhotra. ”We must accelerate progress and dedicate resources for girls to claim their rights and realize their full potential.”
