Adolescent Bodily Integrity and Freedom from Violence in Ethiopia

BASELINE REPORT SERIES Adolescent bodily integrity and freedom from violence in Ethiopia Nicola Jones, Elizabeth Presler-Marshall, Sarah Baird, Joan Hicks, Guday Emirie, Workneh Yadete, Yitayew Alemayehu, Bezawit Bekele and Elshaday Kifle Woldevesus May 2019 Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank the GAGE Ethiopia quantitative research team of supervisors and enumerators based at the Ethiopian Development Research Institute, overseen by Professor Tassew Woldehanna, Chanie Ejigu and Mesele Araya; the GAGE Ethiopia qualitative research team including Dr Guday Emirie, Dr Kassahun Tilahun, Abreham Iyasu, Kiya Gezahegne, Meti Kebede, Nardos Chuta, Yitagesu Gebeyehu, Fitsum Workneh, Fatuma Abubaker, Fatuma Nure, Bekele Tefera, Amin Abdulkadir and Ayisa Hamed; as well as the team of transcribers and translators. The latter included: Abreham Alemu, Bizuayehu Ayele, Endeshaw Yemane, Getahun Shiferaw, Helen Degefa, Helina Assefa, Mazengia Birra, Mena Mekonnen, Tefera Goshu, Tigist Tensou, Tsega Melese, Tsinu Amdesellassie, Wolde Asfaw and Yeshi Mulatu. We thank the field facilitators for providing supportive roles in the field, and district and kebele-level government authorities for their close support of the field researchers during the fieldwork period. In addition, we would like to sincerely thank Emma Jones, Megan Devonald and Eric Neumeister for their dedicated research assistance, Anna Tobor, Bethelihem Gebre and Malgorzata Janusz for their coding support, and Anne Salon for her patience and oversight of the data management process. We also wish to thank Kathryn O’Neill, Roo Griffiths, Charlie Denney and Anna Andreoli for their excellent editorial support, Jojoh Faal Sy for her expert layout and design support and Letisha Lunin for her vision and attention to detail around the realisation of the report series. We wish to gratefully acknowledge the thoughtful reflections and feedback of the federal and regional government experts who participated in the GAGE baseline validation workshops in November 2018, and especially Ato Seleshi Tadesse and Azeb Rezene. We are also very grateful to the insightful and detailed feedback on a draft provided by Dr Alula Pankhurst. Finally, we wish to thank all the adolescents, caregivers, community leaders and service providers who generously agreed to be part of the GAGE longitudinal study and provided us with rich insights as to the lived experiences of adolescent girls and boys in Ethiopia. We are also particularly grateful to the adolescents and their guardians who, although not part of the research, provided their consent to be photographed, and to Nathalie Bertrams for visually capturing their realities and to Ingrid Gercama for assisting in this. Suggested citation: Jones, N., Presler-Marshall, E., Baird, S., Hicks, J., Emirie, G., Yadete, W., Alemayehu, Y., Bekele, B. and Kifle, E. (2019)Adolescent bodily integrity and freedom from violence in Ethiopia. A report on GAGE Ethiopia baseline findings. London: Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence Table of contents Acronyms list V Glossary V Executive summary 1 Introduction 1 Research methodology 1 Key findings 1 Change strategies 2 Policy and practice implications 2 Introduction 4 Conceptual framework 4 Research methodology 7 Research questions 7 Mixed-methods approach 7 Research sites 7 Mixed-methods analysis 7 Baseline findings on adolescent bodily integrity 9 Aged-based violence 9 Sexual and gender-based violence 17 FGM/C 20 Child marriage 21 Change strategies to advance adolescent bodily integrity 27 Empowering girls 27 Engaging with boys and young men 27 Engaging with parents 28 Engaging with communities 28 Strengthening school systems 29 Delivering adolescent-friendly services 29 Policy and programming implications 31 References 33 Annex 1: Policy implications 34 Annex 2: Quantitative data baseline results 42 Annex 3: GAGE Ethiopia research sites 46 Annex 4: Research ethics, sample and methods 49 Adolescent bodily integrity and freedom from violence in Ethiopia Figures Figure 1: GAGE conceptual framework 6 Figure 2: Map of Ethiopia with research sites highlighted 8 Figure 3: Trends in age of first marriage, by region, 2005 to 2016 (all women of reproductive age) 21 Figure 4: GAGE Ethiopia research sites broken down by region and woreda 48 Boxes Box 1: Overview of GAGE and our baseline report series 5 Box 2: Disability and age-based violence 9 Box 3: How far do differences in context explain differences in corporal punishment by parents? 11 Box 4: Forms of corporal punishment perpetrated by teachers against pupils 12 Box 5: How context affects education and learning 13 Box 6: Disability and heightened risk of peer violence 15 Box 7: The multiple dimensions of school violence: Waktola’s story 16 Box 8: How context shapes peer-to-peer violence 17 Box 9: How context shapes differences in incidence of sexual assault 19 Box 10: Zinash: ‘What does free really mean?’ 23 Tables Annex Table 1: Bodily Integrity (Young Cohort), Gender and Disability 42 Annex Table 2: Bodily Integrity (Young Cohort), Location 43 Annex Table 3: Bodily Integrity (Old Cohort), Urban Only 44 Annex Table 4: Bodily Integrity (Old Cohort vs. Young Cohort), Urban Only (Debre Tabor and Dire Dawa Only) 45 Annex Table 5: Urban and rural sites 46 Annex Table 6: GAGE research sites by economic and social vulnerability criteria 47 Annex Table 7: GAGE Ethiopia baseline instruments disaggregated by individual and group-based activities 51 Annex Table 8: GAGE Ethiopia baseline qualitative research nodal sample 52 Acronyms list EDHS Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey EDRI Ethiopian Development Research Institute FGM/C Female genital mutilation/cutting GAGE Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence IRB Institutional Review Board NGO Non-governmental organisation ODI Overseas Development Institute SDG Sustainable Development Goal Glossary Absuma Marriage system in Afar which mandates cross-cousin (maternal cousin) unions. Haftu An insult used to refer to an adolescent girl or young woman remaining unmarried above a socially acceptable age. Kebele Community or smallest administrative unit of Ethiopia. Qeerroos Groups of adolescent boys and young men who have formed at the community level in many parts of the Oromia region in response to political tensions prevailing in the country since 2016. Khat The leaves of an Arabian shrub, which are chewed (or drunk as an infusion) as a stimulant. The plant is grown as a cash crop. Shegoye A form of traditional dancing that adolescent girls and boys participate in without adult supervision in eastern Oromia. Sunna A less invasive form of FGM/C referring to the excision of the clitoris prepuce and of the clitoris or parts thereof (also referred to as Type 1 in the WHO four-fold classification of FGM/C). Woreda District or third-level administrative division in Ethiopia (after zones and regions). V Adolescent bodily integrity and freedom from violence in Ethiopia Ethiopia: Bodily integrity and freedom from violence Recommendation: Address the gender norms that leave boys vulnerable to peer violence and girls at risk of sexual violence, FGM/C and child marriage – and support parents and teachers to embrace non-violent discipline. 18 3/4 of young adolescents For many girls, the verbal FGM/C takes place from Child marriage remains have experienced violence and physical abuse they infancy to adolescence; in common. Most child brides at school – 2/3 have experience in childhood some contexts girls endorse are pushed into marriage by experienced or witnessed evolves into sexual violence the practice given strong parents, but some marriage violence at home in adolescence cultural pressures are adolescent-led I am powerful in the neighbourhood. When boys try to create problems for me, I beat them. I am aggressive and I can beat everyone who has tried to create problems for me.” 11-year-old in Dire Dawa City, Ethiopia VI Executive summary Introduction 17 years, and with the older cohort at 17–19 years, 18–20 Existing evidence suggests that most Ethiopian years and 20–22 years. The main qualitative research will adolescents have experienced at least one form of age- happen at the same junctures, but we will also undertake or gender-based violence (Pankhurst et al., 2018; Save the peer-to-peer and participatory research from late 2018/ Children, 2011), and although declining over time, according early 2019 onwards on an annual basis to explore peer to the latest Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey networks and the experiences of the most marginalised (EDHS) (2016), harmful traditional practices are estimated adolescents in more depth.. to affect a significant proportion of the country’s girls, including child marriage (40% of girls 15–19 years) and Key findings female genital mutilation and cutting (47% of girls 15–19 Overall our findings highlighted that adolescents face years), (CSA and ICF, 2017). significant and multidimensional risks in terms of bodily This report on adolescent bodily integrity and freedom integrity and violence, but that the patterning of these risks from violence is one of a series of short baseline reports differs considerably by gender, age and geographic location. focused on emerging mixed-methods findings from the • Age-based violence: Most adolescents experience Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) corporal punishment at the hands of their parents and longitudinal study baseline data collection. Drawing on a by teachers in the case of school-attending adolescents. gender and capabilities framework, the

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