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

Our future: a Lancet commission on adolescent health and wellbeing.

Unprecedented global forces are shaping the health and wellbeing of the largest generation of 10 to 24 year olds in human history. Population mobility, global communications, economic development, and the sustainability of ecosystems are setting the future course for this generation and, in turn, humankind. At the same time, we have come to new understandings of adolescence as a critical phase in life for achieving human potential. Adolescence is characterised by dynamic brain development in which the interaction with the social environment shapes the capabilities an individual takes forward into adult life.3 During adolescence, an individual acquires the physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and economic resources that are the foundation for later life health and wellbeing. These same resources define trajectories into the next generation. Investments in adolescent health and wellbeing bring benefits today, for decades to come, and for the next generation. Better childhood health and nutrition, extensions to education, delays in family formation, and new technologies offer the possibility of this being the healthiest generation of adolescents ever. But these are also the ages when new and different health problems related to the onset of sexual activity, emotional control, and behaviour typically emerge. Global trends include those promoting unhealthy lifestyles and commodities, the crisis of youth unemployment, less family stability, environmental degradation, armed conflict, and mass migration, all of which pose major threats to adolescent health and wellbeing. Adolescents and young adults have until recently been overlooked in global health and social policy, one reason why they have had fewer health gains with economic development than other age groups. The UN Secretary-General's Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health initiated, in September, 2015, presents an outstanding opportunity for investment in adolescent health and wellbeing. However, because of limits to resources and technical capacities at both the national and the global level, effective response has many challenges. The question of where to make the most effective investments is now pressing for the international development community. This Commission outlines the opportunities and challenges for investment at both country and global levels (panel 1)

Influences on U.S. International Population and Reproductive Health Policy

The United States has been a global leader in the international population arena for nearly fifty years, but the domestic policy debate around international population and reproductive health issues has been increasingly characterized by politicization and partisanship. This study explores the strategies and discourse that have been designed and employed to influence the direction and scope of U.S. international population policy over time, including those used by interest groups and members of the United States Congress themselves. Through a case history, qualitative interviews and a descriptive and interpretative content analysis of congressional debates, I assessed: (1) How interest groups and their issue definition, messages and strategies, have sought to influence United States international population policy over time. Specifically, have these messages and strategies influenced the positions of federal policymakers around international population policy? (2) How the gender and political party affiliation of members of Congress have influenced their support for international population programs. Are female legislators more likely than their male counterparts to pursue a pro- international reproductive health and rights agenda? (3) The tone of discourse employed by male and female members of Congress when speaking and voting on international reproductive health and rights issues on the House floor. My goal was to understand the quest by advocates on both sides of the international family planning issue to shift policy around this issue to their benefit. I find that the Religious Right has successfully managed to alter the debate about international family planning and reproductive health, including by deliberately conflating family planning with abortion. I find evidence of a growing partisan divide around these issues in the U.S. Congress, in both voting and speaking patterns. Finally, I conclude that female members of Congress engage more frequently and more positively on international family planning than do their male counterparts

Stemming HIV in adolescents: Gender and modes of transmission

The HIV/AIDS community is paying increasing attention to the estimated 1·8 million (uncertainty bounds 1·3 million to 2·4 million) people younger than 15 years living with HIV globally, as was evident by the focus on adolescents at the XXII International AIDS Conference in July, 2018. This attention is welcome, and it is crucial to curtailing the HIV epidemic. But while age disaggregation can help elucidate the spread and impacts of the HIV epidemic, it is not enough. A gender lens is also needed

Associations between mental distress, poly-victimisation, and gender attitudes among adolescent girls in Cambodia and Haiti: an analysis of Violence Against Children surveys

This study aims to explore the effects of poly-victimisation (defined as the experience of multiple different forms of violence, including physical, emotional, and/or sexual) and gender attitudes on mental distress and suicidal ideation among adolescent girls, using cross-sectional nationally representative household survey data from Cambodia and Haiti. Data used were from 555 and 675 adolescent girls aged 13 to 19 from the 2013 Cambodia and 2012 Haiti Violence Against Children Surveys, respectively. Weighted bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to assess the relationship between poly-victimisation and gender attitudes with severe mental distress and suicidal ideation, controlling for a range of factors. The results suggest that poly-victimisation is associated with severe mental distress and suicidal ideation among adolescent girls in both countries. Gender attitudes can serve as either a risk or protective factor. For example, in Haiti, respondents who agreed that women should tolerate violence to keep their family together were more likely to experience mental distress, but less likely to have had suicidal thoughts. The study’s findings illustrate the need for further research on how gender norms and attitudes as well as experiences of multiple different forms of violence impact adolescent mental health