New Findings on Child Marriage in Sub-Saharan Africa

Despite increasing global attention and commitments by countries to end the harmful practice of child marriage, each year some 15 million girls marry before the age of 18. The preponderance of the evidence produced historically on child marriage comes from South Asia, where the vast majority of child brides live. Far less attention has been paid to child marriage in sub-Saharan Africa, where prevalence rates remain high. The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) recently conducted research in Kenya, Senegal, Uganda, and Zambia to contribute to greater understanding of the drivers of child marriage in each of these contexts. Synthesizing findings from 4 diverse countries provides a useful opportunity to identify similarities and differences, as well as understandings that may be applicable to and helpful for preventing child marriage across these and other settings. Across the 4 countries, ICRW's research echoes the existing literature base in affirming that child marriage is rooted in inequitable gender norms that prioritize women's roles as wives, mothers, and household caretakers, resulting in inadequate investments by families in girls' education. These discriminatory norms interact closely with poverty and a lack of employment opportunities for girls and young women to perpetuate marriage as a seemingly viable alternative for girls. We found in the African study sites that sexual relations, unplanned pregnancy, and school dropout often precede child marriage, which differs from much of the existing evidence on child marriage from South Asia. Further, unlike in South Asia, where family members typically determine the spouse a girl will marry, most girls in the Africa study settings have greater autonomy in partner choice selection. In Senegal, increasing educational attainment and labor migration, particularly by young women, has contributed to reduced rates of child marriage for girls. Our findings suggest that improving gender equitable norms and providing more—and more equitable—opportunities for girls, particularly with regard to education and employment, are likely to improve child marriage outcomes. Providing comprehensive sexuality education and youth-friendly reproductive health services can reduce rates of early pregnancy that contribute to child marriage. Finally, identifying ways in which to improve communication between parents and adolescent daughters could go far in ensuring that girls feel valued and that parents feel heard as they make decisions together regarding the lives and opportunities of these adolescent girls

Economic impacts of child marriage : global synthesis report

The international community is increasingly aware of the negative impacts of child marriage on a wide range of development outcomes. Ending child marriage is now part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Yet investments to end the practice remain limited across the globe and more could be done. In order to inspire greater commitments towards ending child marriage, this study demonstrates the negative impacts of the practice and their associated economic costs. The study looks at five domains of impacts: (i) fertility and population growth; (ii) health, nutrition, and violence; (iii) educational attainment and learning; (iv) labor force participation and earnings; and (v) participation, decision-making, and investments. Economic costs associated with the impacts are estimated for several of the impacts. When taken together across countries, the costs of child marriage are very high. They suggest that investing to end child marriage is not only the right thing to do, but also makes sense economically

Development of parallel measures to assess HIV stigma and discrimination among people living with HIV, community members and health workers in the HPTN 071 (PopART) trial in Zambia and South Africa.

INTRODUCTION: Integrating standardized measures of HIV stigma and discrimination into research studies of emerging HIV prevention approaches could enhance uptake and retention of these approaches, and care and treatment for people living with HIV (PLHIV), by informing stigma mitigation strategies. We sought to develop a succinct set of measures to capture key domains of stigma for use in research on HIV prevention technologies. METHODS: From 2013 to 2015, we collected baseline data on HIV stigma from three populations (PLHIV (N = 4053), community members (N = 5782) and health workers (N = 1560)) in 21 study communities in South Africa and Zambia participating in the HPTN 071 (PopART) cluster-randomized trial. Forty questions were adapted from a harmonized set of measures developed in a consultative, global process. Informed by theory and factor analysis, we developed seven scales, with values ranging from 0 to 3, based on a 4-point agreement Likert, and calculated means to assess different aspects of stigma. Higher means reflected more stigma. We developed two measures capturing percentages of PLHIV who reported experiencing any stigma in communities or healthcare settings in the past 12 months. We validated our measures by examining reliability using Cronbach's alpha and comparing the distribution of responses across characteristics previously associated with HIV stigma. RESULTS: Thirty-five questions ultimately contributed to seven scales and two experience measures. All scales demonstrated acceptable to very good internal consistency. Among PLHIV, a scale captured internalized stigma, and experience measures demonstrated that 22.0% of PLHIV experienced stigma in the community and 7.1% in healthcare settings. Three scales for community members assessed fear and judgement, perceived stigma in the community and perceived stigma in healthcare settings. Similarly, health worker scales assessed fear and judgement, perceived stigma in the community and perceived co-worker stigma in healthcare settings. A higher proportion of community members and health workers reported perceived stigma than the proportion of PLHIV who reported experiences of stigma. CONCLUSIONS: We developed novel, valid measures that allowed for triangulation of HIV stigma across three populations in a large-scale study. Such comparisons will illuminate how stigma influences and is influenced by programmatic changes to HIV service delivery over time

Additional file 2: of The influence of caregiver depression on adolescent mental health outcomes: findings from refugee settlements in Uganda

Caregiver final instrument. Caregiver quantitative assessment. Measures of socio-demographics, mental health and socio-economic status. (DOCX 66 kb

Qualidade física de grãos beneficiados de cultivares de arroz produzidos em diferentes níveis de adubação

Rice is one of the most cultivated cereals in the world and the increase in crop yield is associated with cultivars and levels of soil fertilization, and may suffer changes in grain quality after processing. The objective of this work was to evaluate the physical quality of grains of rice benefited as polished and integral of cultivars IR 424 RI and IR 431 CL as a function of different levels of fertilization. After the harvest, the grains were subjected to the debarking and polishing processes. Quality analysis was performed according to the physical classification of rice. The cultivar IR 424 RI obtained higher values of yellow, burned and plastered grains, and in the cultivar IR 431 LC more broken, chopped and stained grains were observed. The average yield of polished rice of cultivar IR 431 CL was 44.54% and cultivar IR 424 RI was 56.80%. Meanwhile, the average yield of whole rice of cultivar IR 431 CL was 65.02% and cultivar IR 424 RI was 73.08%. The increase in the fertilization levels of the rice influenced positively on the yield of whole grains, but did not present satisfactory results regarding the physical quality.O arroz é um dos cereais mais cultivados no mundo e o aumento da produtividade da cultua está associado às cultivares e aos níveis de adubação do solo, podendo sofrer alterações na qualidade dos grãos após beneficiamento. Desta forma, o trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar a qualidade física de grãos de arroz beneficiado como polido e integral das cultivares IR 424 RI e IR 431 CL em função de diferentes níveis de adubação. Após a colheita os grãos foram submetidos aos processos de descascamento e polimento. A análise da qualidade foi realizada de acordo com as normas de classificação física do arroz. A cultivar IR 424 RI obteve maiores valores de grãos amarelos, ardidos e gessados, e na cultivar IR 431 CL observou-se mais grãos quebrados, picados e manchados. O rendimento médio do arroz polido da cultivar IR 431 CL foi de 44,54% e da cultivar IR 424 RI foi de 56,80%. Enquanto que, o rendimento médio do arroz integral da cultivar IR 431 CL foi de 65,02% e da cultivar IR 424 RI foi de 73,08%. O aumento nos teores de adubação do arroz influenciou positivamente sobre o rendimento de grãos inteiros, porém não apresentou resultados satisfatórios quanto à qualidade física