Empowering young women to prevent the early marriage of vulnerable girls in rural

Baseline report | August 2019

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Contents Acronyms ...... 3 Background ...... 4 Project Summary ...... 6 Methodology ...... 7 Baseline Findings ...... 8 Completion rates...... 8 Upper Secondary Completion rate ...... 8 Lower Secondary Completion Rate ...... 9 Drop-out due to pregnancy and/or early marriage ...... 10 Awareness of children’s rights in regard to early marriage ...... 12 Awareness amongst students ...... 13 Awareness among community members ...... 13 The Re-Entry Policy ...... 15 Local action in communities to enforce children’s rights ...... 19 Need for Positive Role Models ...... 20 Conclusion ...... 21

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Acronyms

CAMA: CAMFED Alumnae Network

CAMFED: Campaign for Female Education

DEBS: District Education Board Secretary

FGD: Focus-group discussion

IDI: In-depth interview

MoGE: Ministry of General Education

MSG: Mother Support Group

PTA: Parent-Teacher Association

REP: Re-Entry Policy

SDC: School Development Committee

SRH: Sexual and Reproductive Health

TL: Traditional Leader

UNFPA: United Nations Population Fund

UNICEF: United Nations Children's Fund

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Background

CAMFED is responsible for the delivery of the project, ‘Empowering young women to prevent the early marriage of vulnerable girls in rural Zambia’. This is a three-year project taking place in 15 districts in four provinces of rural Zambia between October 2018 and March 2021, funded by DFID UK Aid Match with a total budget of £1,332,268. The project aims to address the complex and interrelated causes of child marriage in rural Zambia. Across the world, child brides are more likely to live in rural areas, come from poorer households and have less schooling1 – girls with secondary schooling are up to six times less likely to be married early than those who have little or no schooling2. Within rural Zambia, restrictive gender norms and high levels of poverty make early marriage both a cause and effect of girls’ drop-out from school.

Zambia has some of the highest rates of rural poverty and child marriage in the world. Recent economic progress has not translated into improved quality of life for rural communities: despite a decade of strong economic growth, rural poverty rates increased between 2000 and 2010. 73% of the population in Western province, 64% in Northern and 61% in Luapula, live in extreme poverty3. Social norms devaluing both girls’ education and women’s participation in the formal labour force can mean that, particularly in poor households, girls are not prioritised in a household’s education investment decisions, often leading to the girl dropping out of school. Within this context, the imperative to earn money can translate into pressures to engage in transactional sex, exposing girls to the risk of pregnancy and HIV/AIDS. Early marriage can seem the only or best available option, and is often used as a coping strategy by struggling families, with parents marrying their daughters early in the belief that this will help relieve the families’ economic burden.

Girls who marry young are more likely to drop out of school, which has a significant impact on their ability to succeed academically when the common factor linking improved outcomes for young rural women in Zambia across the board is education. Women who have completed secondary school are more likely to be in waged employment, participate in decision-making, take up a leadership role, and to own a business4. However, 42% of Zambian women aged 20-49 report having married before age 18, compared to 4.2% of men5. While nationally the practice appears to be on the decline, urban-rural disparities mean significant challenges remain, particularly in the rural areas this project is targeting: in Muchinga, one of the target provinces of this project, the proportion of women aged 20-49 who report having being married before age 18 is 60%6. When girls do go to school, they face structural challenges in the education system that often force them to drop out, and point them back towards early marriage. As well as the direct costs of going to school, these include a lack of female teachers in rural schools, meaning poor support and few role models, narrow curricula that ill-equip girls for life after school, gendered classrooms and discrimination, and the risk of sexual and physical abuse and/or violence at or on the way to school. Early marriage limits young married girls’ skills, resources, knowledge, social support, mobility, and autonomy therefore they often have little power in relation to their husband, putting them at greater threat of domestic violence and risky early pregnancies7. Without an education, child brides are less able to earn a safe and adequate income that would lift them and their families out of poverty. Furthermore the lack of power and decision-making autonomy

1 Center for Global Development, ‘Girls Count, A Global Investment and Action Agenda’, 2008 2 International Center for Research on Women, Too Young to Wed: Advocacy Toolkit’, 2006 3 Zambia: MDG progress report 2011, UNDP 4 The World Bank, ‘World Development Report 2012: Gender, Equality and Development’, Zambia DHS, 2010 5 Zambia DHS, 2010 6 Zambia DHS, 2010 7 National Bureau of Economic Research, ‘Women’s Empowerment and Economic Development’, 2011

Page 4 of 21 can have a significant influence on economic decisions – where women do have decision-making power and their priorities are reflected in how household resources are allocated, household expenditures on key areas such as education and health tend to be higher8. Ultimately, constraining women’s and girls’ voice and agency contributes to losses in productivity and has long-term effects for global development goals9.

The Government of Zambia recognises this challenge, and in 2013 launched a national campaign to end child marriage, focusing on the role of traditional leaders and changes in laws and policies from local level up. In 2016, it developed a National Strategy on Ending Child Marriage (supported by UNFPA-UNICEF through the Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage) to guide this process. The strategy seeks to facilitate positive change in existing harmful social and gender norms in order to reduce the incidence of child marriage, and includes a clear focus on the central role of education and school-based interventions10. The UNFPA-UNICEF programme will continue its support to the Zambian government over the next 10 years, first focusing on the strengthening of institutions and systems and building a strong evidence base for effective interventions at scale, and later bringing in a broader number of key actors, to accelerate change and focus on strengthened political support, policies and frameworks. The timing of this UK Aid Match project is ideally positioned to feed into that evidence base to inform the second phase of the programme.

While reform of the legal and policy framework is a necessary element of eliminating child marriage, multiple research studies11 have found that regulations and oversight need to be accompanied by an aware and supportive public as well as empowered children. Interventions to eradicate child marriage are most powerful when they deliver the following: empowering girls with information, skills and support networks; enhancing the accessibility and quality of formal schooling for girls; and offering economic support and incentives for girls and their families to keep girls in school or marry later12.

Under this project CAMFED is working with and through existing government and civil society structures to tackle the demand and supply side problems in the education system that contribute to high levels of child marriage in the target districts. It is empowering educated young women through training, mentoring and access to finance, to provide the targeted support vulnerable girls need to stay in school, including coaching in life skills and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) awareness, at the same time as making their own transition to a secure, economically independent adulthood. These young women are filling the ‘role model gap’ in schools, and helping reset expectations and norms for girls in their communities. The project is also placing young women at the centre of a community- based advocacy strategy against child marriage, engaging traditional leaders, parents and the wider community to come together to protect and uphold girls’ rights.

8 IFPRI, ‘Household Decisions, Gender, and Development’, 2003 9 World Bank, ‘Empowering Women and Girls for Shared Prosperity, 2014. 10 Zambia National Strategy for Ending Child Marriage, 2016. http://zambia.unfpa.org 11 Parsons et al, ‘Economic Impacts of Child Marriage: A Review of the Literature’, 2015 12 Ibid

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Project Summary

The project is creating a virtuous cycle in empowering young rural women to successfully transition from school to economic independence, and in turn support vulnerable girls in their communities to stay in school, learn and escape early marriage. The project incorporates a set of interlinked interventions to provide a comprehensive approach to tackle the complex and interrelated factors that underpin the high incidence of child marriage among girls in Zambia. The focus is on adolescent girls in impoverished rural areas who are at high risk of dropping out from secondary school. 200 young women school graduates will be trained as Learner Guides to deliver a bespoke life skills curriculum in rural secondary schools to support the school retention, participation and success of marginalised girls at risk of early marriage. The life skills curriculum incorporates SRH training and core skills that relate to self-efficacy, critical thinking and self-esteem. Within schools, the My Better World curriculum and Learner Guide Programme will incorporate aspects of gender-transformative programming. Soliciting the equal contribution of girls and boys in classes will be explicitly encouraged as part of the learner-centred, inclusive pedagogy. The curriculum, developed with the input of rural children (girls and boys), supports the development of self-awareness that transcends narrow gender roles. Boys will also benefit from the My Better World life skills curriculum, which challenges gender norms and stereotypical type behaviour, and encourages equal responsibility for making healthy sexual choices and mutual respect among boys and girls.

The young women will sign up to an 18-month commitment to work in their local secondary schools and the sessions will be delivered to all children in a class and incorporate learner-centred pedagogical approaches to ensure that the most marginalised girls fully participate. They will take on this role in 85 secondary schools across 15 districts reaching over 22,000 children, including 16,738 marginalised girls.

The Learner Guides will undergo a comprehensive training programme delivered at provincial level by a team of 15 Core Trainers (one per district) who will then provide regular refresher training, review and oversight.

The incentive scheme that underpins the 18-month commitment to the role of Learner Guide is centred on the provision of Kiva loans to enable them to start small businesses, for which they will also receive additional training and wraparound support. These loans will be provided on the basis that their volunteering is recognised in lieu of financial interest. They will be provided through CAMFED’s partner, online micro loan provider, Kiva, and will be managed with the support of CAMA committees backstopped by CAMFED Zambia district secretariats.

Girls who are identified as being critically vulnerable to early marriage, either having dropped out from school or at high risk of doing so, will be provided with additional material support to stay in school. This support will be responsive to the particular needs a girl may face, and may include support for school-going costs or assistance in finding safe accommodation near the school if the distance from home is too far to walk each day. It will be provided in combination with psycho-social support and counselling from Learner Guides and Teacher Mentors, alongside additional engagement with girls’ parents or guardians where needed. The infrastructure of local partners, which includes cross-sectoral committees, will provide an extensive support network for Learner Guides to draw on where this additional support is needed, including established processes for administering funds for school-going costs.

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Methodology

The purpose of this baseline report is primarily to establish the baseline values and set milestones and targets for specific logframe indicators, relating to completion rates, drop-out due to pregnancy and/or early marriage, re-entry to school after pregnancy, and awareness of child rights. All the project schools are located within CAMFED partner districts and have been partnering with CAMFED for around 10 years, benefitting from prior investment in capacity-building and resources, such as training in financial management, child protection and guidance and counselling. Our community-led model means stakeholders in these schools and communities are leading the delivery of CAMFED’s wider programme. Their lived experience of the local context has informed the project design. Qualitative evidence collected for this baseline report provides useful added contextual understanding of the key challenges and the need for the interventions detailed in the project theory of change.

This baseline report is informed by two sources of data: quantitative data collected during monitoring visits to partner schools and a qualitative study carried out by an external consultant. At the end of the two and a half year project, an evaluator team will be engaged to carry out an independent, final evaluation.

Quantitative baseline data was collected in September and October 2018 by CAMFED Zambia’s Impact Team, District Programme Officers and CDC members on school monitoring visits. The following data was collected:

 Enrolments, by grade and gender, from 2015 onwards;

 Drop-outs, by grade and gender, from 2015 onwards;

 Transfers in and out, and repeaters, by grade and gender, from 2015 onwards (where available);

 Drop-outs attributed to pregnancy and/or early marriage, from 2015 onwards;

 Number of students re-entering the school after pregnancy, from 2015 onwards.

Data was collected using tablets. Constraints were placed within the programming of the data collection forms (e.g. so that drop-out numbers could not be higher than enrolment) to reduce data entry error. During data cleaning, any unusual data was verified by contacting the schools concerned.

The baseline qualitative study was carried out by an independent consultant, Dr Richard Mutemwa, in February 2019 in four target schools in and Sesheke Districts. The aim of the qualitative research was to gain a better understanding of the context in which the project will work, and to provide a baseline for the level of awareness and promotion among students, schools and school based community groups (School Development Committees – SDCs) of children’s rights in regard to early marriage. The consultant carried out Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews (IDIs) with:  Students;  Students re-entered after pregnancy;  Out of school girls;  Parents, including Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) members;  Teachers, including Teacher Mentors;  Head Teachers.

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Baseline Findings

In this section, baseline findings, including qualitative details where available, are presented for the following logframe indicators:  Upper Secondary female completion rates (Grades 10 - 12);  Lower Secondary female completion rates (Grades 8 - 9);  Drop-out rate of girls attributed to pregnancy and/or early marriage;  Level of awareness and promotion among students, schools and school based community groups (SDCs) of children's rights in regard to early marriage (qualitative);  Proportion of schools actively enacting re-entry policy.

It also provides qualitative evidence collected on the following themes:  Awareness of children’s rights in regard to early marriage;  The Re-Entry Policy;  Local action in communities to enforce children’s rights;  The need for positive role models.

Completion rates

The completion rate (also known as survival rate) is the percentage of a cohort of students enrolled in the first grade of a given level or cycle of education in a given school year who are expected to reach the last grade of a given level or cycle of education, regardless of grade repetition.

Enrolment, transfers and drop-out data was collected in 2018 from all 85 project partner schools.

Upper Secondary Completion rate

Each school’s data was used to calculate an Upper Secondary completion rate if the school included Upper Secondary pupils, i.e. Grades 10 to 12, and had available reliable data for three consecutive years. This was available from 36 project partner schools and gave a baseline Upper Secondary completion rate of 88.4%. This indicates that 88.4% of children enrolled in Grade 10 will complete Grade 12 in the project partner schools, some of whom may repeat one or more grades to achieve that.

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Figure 1: Upper Secondary Completion Rate

Data from the 2015 to 2017 period suggests that this indicator is not stable: the completion rate dipped from 87.6% in 2015 to 84.5% in 2016 and then back up to 88.4% in 2017. The milestones and target set for the next three years of the project build in an aspiration to see a consistent level of increase each year, exceeding the level achieved in any year since 2015.

Outcome Indicator 1: Upper Secondary female completion rates (Grades 10 - 12)

Outcome Indicator 1 Baseline Milestone 1 Milestone 2 Target (2018) (2019) (2020) (2021) Upper Secondary female 88.4% 88.8% 89.2% 89.6% completion rates (Grades 10 - 12)

Lower Secondary Completion Rate

Each school’s data was used to calculate a Lower Secondary completion rate, if the school included Lower Secondary pupils, i.e. Grades 8 and 9, and had available reliable data for three consecutive years. This was available from 53 project partner schools and gave a baseline Lower Secondary completion rate of 94.2%. In summary, this indicates that 94.2% of children enrolled in Grade 8 will complete Grade 9 in the project partner schools. For some, this will include repeating one or both grades.

Such a high completion rate indicates a high level of retention and relatively low level of drop-out. Trend data collected from 2015 onwards from these schools shows that the rise in the completion rate is tailing off: as the completion rate approaches 100% it becomes harder to increase.

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Lower Secondary female completion rates 100% 94.2% 94.2% 95.6% 96.3% 96.6% 86.3% 91.4% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 2015 2016 2017 Baseline 2019 2020 2021

Completion rate

Figure 2: Lower Secondary completion rate

The milestones and targets set for the project period (2019 to 2021) reflect this, with reduced incremental increases set for the second and third years. Outcome Indicator 2: Lower Secondary female completion rates (Grades 8 - 9). Baseline, Milestones and Target Outcome Indicator 2 Baseline Milestone 1 Milestone 2 Target (2018) (2019) (2020) (2021) Lower Secondary female 94.2% 95.6% 96.3% 96.6% completion rates (Grades 8 - 9)

The high completion rate for Lower Secondary masks the problem of drop out between Grade 9 and Grade 10. Due to a shortage of Secondary schools, many Primary schools in Zambia have been accommodating Lower Secondary grades (Grade 8 and 9). These schools, known as Basic Schools, are more accessible than High Schools and Secondary Schools, of which there are fewer and which may necessitate a long journey and select students who perform better in their Grade 9 exams. Transition rates between Grade 9 and 10 are low nationally (rates differ significantly across provinces from 29 percent to 58 percent for upper secondary13), and the capacity of current secondary schools in the country can accommodate only about 30 percent of the Grades 1–5 population14. In the face of these barriers, support to enable students to complete Lower Secondary successfully and with role models such as Learner Guides to promote the benefits of continuing their Secondary education is critical.

Drop-out due to pregnancy and/or early marriage

Data was collected from partner schools, where available, on the level of female student drop-out due to pregnancy and/or early marriage. 55 schools were able to provide data with the reasons for drop- out. This revealed that drop-outs attributable to pregnancy and/or early marriage accounted for over half the drop-outs of female students in all secondary grades (between 59–61%) in the last three years. Between 2015 and 2018 the drop-out rate attributable to pregnancy and/or marriage was stable at 2% of the female student population, giving a baseline drop-out rate of 2.04%.

13 Ministry of Education Statistics Bulletin 2014 14 World Bank, Education Sector Public Expenditure Tracking and Service Delivery Survey in Zambia, 2016

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The target for this indicator is for a reduction in the rate of drop-out due to pregnancy and/or early marriage by 0.1 percentage points in each year of the project, with a target of 1.70% in 2021. This is equivalent to 119 girls remaining in school who would otherwise have dropped out due to pregnancy and/or early marriage.

Outcome Indicator 3: Drop-out rate of girls attributed to pregnancy and/or early marriage

Outcome Indicator 3 Baseline Milestone 1 Milestone 2 Target (2018) (2019) (2020) (2021) Drop-out rate of girls 2.04% 1.90% 1.80% 1.70% attributed to pregnancy and/or early marriage

All four schools in Sioma and Sesheke Districts that were visited as part of the qualitative study reported school drop-out of girls as an existing challenge.

“Early pregnancies is what is highly pronounced here… (For instance) this term we already have 12 pregnancies even before the term ends, to me that is an indication that the problem is big. The problem is bigger now than it used to be in the past.” Head Teacher in a secondary school in Sioma District.

The school registers are not always clear on the specific reasons for dropping out because many students simply stop reporting for school without prior notice. There is also no formal system to follow-up with these girls and, where follow-ups are attempted, the girls are often untraceable or unwilling to provide feedback. However, in-depth interviews with head teachers indicated that poverty is often the underlying reason, even when a girl has ostensibly dropped out due to pregnancy.

“Pregnancies, there are a variety of causes… some of these children come from families that we can describe as very vulnerable, families that cannot afford the basic necessities and a good number of them [the school girls] come from such families.” Head Teacher in a secondary school in .

Faced with considerable hardship, some parents encourage their daughters to leave school and get married, in order to reduce the financial burden on the family and try to ensure the girl is better provided for elsewhere. In other cases, school girls themselves decide to drop out of school to get married as a strategy to escape hardship. The following quotations are by girls who had dropped out of secondary school:

“Some parents are in the forefront encouraging [their daughters] to get married. Because of the standard of living in the communities they feel that they cannot manage sustaining you. They feel you are grown up it’s better you go into marriage so that they can benefit...” FGD with permanently dropped-out girls, Nangweshi secondary school.

“Some girls get into marriage because of the problems they go through, so they feel maybe the problems will end when they get married.” FGD with re-entered school girls, Secondary school, Sioma District.

The qualitative evidence collected for the baseline study suggests that there is potential for under- reporting of both child marriages and pregnancies among secondary school-going girls, especially if the girl and/or her family are determined to conceal the reasons from the school. A report commissioned by UNICEF found that heightened awareness of child marriage had in some areas of

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Zambia resulted in fear of prosecution (as marriage under the age of 16 is illegal, even with parental consent) and shame, and possibly driving child marriage underground15.

The potential for under-reporting of child marriage in school statistics also comes from the sequencing of events. FGDs with current and former school girls suggested that it is common for girls who initially dropped out of school due to pregnancy to be encouraged to get married to the partner responsible for the pregnancy.

“… parents will say since you are pregnant, you wanted marriage so get married so that you start supporting yourself” FGD with permanently dropped-out girls, secondary school, Sioma District.

Thus, many of the cases initially recorded by respective schools as school drop-out due to early pregnancy may have proceeded to child marriage. This also demonstrates the complexity of the relationship between early pregnancies and child marriages among school-going girls in these settings.

This potential under-reporting of drop-out due to pregnancy and early marriage means that the baseline we are providing for this indicator, of 2.04% of female students, might be too low and not capture all cases of drop-out due to pregnancy and early marriage. There is the possibility that, with more attention and focus on this issue and more follow-up at home supported by Learner Guides, CAMFED partner schools may become more aware than they are currently, of drop-outs due to pregnancy and/or early marriage. This should enable schools to identify cases of drop out for these reasons which they might not have done in the past.

As mentioned above, raising awareness of child marriage in the community might alternatively increase feelings of fear and shame and result in further cases of child marriage being hidden or under- reported. To mitigate against this, CAMFED Zambia proposes the following activities:  Working with CAMA members who were previously married (or almost married) to become champions against early marriages. Sharing their stories at community level and showing the power of education would be a powerful tool in ensuring a change of mindset for many communities, while enabling an open dialogue on the subject.

 Working with Traditional Leaders (TLs). Senior Chief Nkula of is a champion for CAMFED and girls’ education and has also been recognised and awarded by the President of Zambia for his efforts in ending child marriages. Chief Nkula will visit partner districts for meetings with TLs, supporting them and motivating them to become champions against child marriage also.

 Working with Mother Support Groups (MSGs), CAMA members and engaged TLs to identify and support underage girls who have been married.

Awareness of children’s rights in regard to early marriage

Data on the levels of awareness and promotion of children's rights with regard to early marriage among students, schools and school-based community groups were collected in IDIs and FGDs with school teachers, school Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) members, as well as former (permanently dropped-out) and current school girls during the qualitative study.

15 Qualitative Study of Child Marriage in Six , 2015, UNICEF

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Awareness amongst students

FGDs were carried out with current school girls, girls who had re-entered school after pregnancy and permanently dropped-out girls. All three groups reported being aware about children’s rights relating to early marriage and education, as well as the short- and long-term benefits that come with them.

“We are all aware of our rights…our rights to be in school and get educated. We should get education because we are the future leaders, for you to be someone out there, you have to be educated.” FGD with current school girls, secondary school, Sesheke District.

“I have the right to build my own future, not depending on someone.” FGD with current school girls, secondary school, Sesheke District.

“(My rights are) good because if girls are educated maybe poverty will end. It helps to protect girls from other vices... all the good jobs out there require that you have an education so it’s good for girls.” FGD with re-entered school girls, secondary school, Sioma District.

“It’s good for girl child to have education because we have to be equal with the boys in terms of qualifications in order for us to compete for the jobs out there.” FGD with re-entered school girls, secondary school, Sioma District.

The girls’ responses often reflected the unique experience of each group. For instance, re-entered school girls reflected on what they had learned from their experience of pregnancy.

“The right to go back to school is good because, for example, I have got a child then I’ve come back to school and I know what am here to do, so I can’t make another mistake again to have another child until I complete and achieve my goals.” FGD with re-entered school girls, secondary school, Sesheke District.

It was also clear from the FGDs that many permanently dropped-out girls wanted to go back to school, but were too poor to afford the associated costs.

“Me, I live with my grandparents. They don’t encourage me to go back to school because they do not have money to pay for me.” FGD with permanently dropped-out girls, secondary school, Sesheke District.

“The right to education is good, but mostly life is hard such that at times you are not able to meet the requirements of school which can force you to drop out from school to get married...” FGD with permanently dropped-out girls, Secondary school, Sesheke District.

Awareness among community members

In the qualitative study, the community was represented by the school PTA membership and opinions on community views were also sought from school representatives, including teachers and head teachers. Overall, the responses from school PTA members were mixed. While all respondents demonstrated awareness about children’s rights, some members expressed reservations about them and teachers reported some resistance in the local communities.

School representatives interviewed reported some resistance to recognition of children’s rights in the communities, which they attributed to two main reasons: commitment to traditional values that prioritise marriage of the child over her education; and high levels of poverty that force many households to value the child’s marriage over her education, as a quicker route to her independence, despite the impact on her rights.

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“A good number of our parents have that awareness. They know, but we also have a few who are still clinging to the traditional way of doing things where they would prefer marriage to education. When a girl is pregnant there are no deliberate efforts to take her back to school otherwise a good number are aware.” Head Teacher in a secondary school in Sioma District.

“The community may be enlightened (about children’s rights) but they are looking at benefits. They think they might delay this child from realizing her life because after completing school they will still go to their parents’ homes.” Head Teacher in a secondary school in Sioma District

Parents themselves also pointed at poverty and expressed doubt about the benefits of education. They found it difficult to see education as a route out of poverty for their children in the context of prevalent high unemployment in the local area.

“We are aware of the girl’s right to education. It’s only that most people in the community have no resources to take their children to school otherwise they are aware. Even if we know that the girls have the right to education there are no job opportunities or industries in the area where people can be employed to earn a living.” FGD with PTA members, secondary school, Sioma District.

Some community representatives on the PTA expressed the view that the promotion of children’s rights was making it difficult for parents to enforce discipline in their families.

“When we were growing up, we had respect for elders not only our parents, but because of these child rights today we are not able to correct our children. It is not only poverty that is causing this, it is because of these rights.” FGD with PTA, secondary school, Sesheke District.

“Yes, these rights are there, but even us parents should have rights. Like in my case I don’t support that because that is what is making these children to be hostile to their parents in that government gives them the right to go and have children then get back (into school), as a result even if you as a parent you talk to your child about getting pregnant, she will oppose you because of the rights; these rights are bad.” FGD with PTA, secondary school, Sesheke District.

Whether or not these beliefs are misplaced, this is an important component of the context in which the project is operating, which needs to be considered and handled sensitively.

Overall, the qualitative evidence collected for the baseline study found a high prevalence of awareness about children’s rights among girls (both those in school and those that dropped out), school teachers and the community. However, the evidence suggests that there may be challenges with upholding these rights, particularly in the community, due to factors such as household poverty, doubts about the economic benefits that education will bring for girls, traditional values about the role of marriage, and the perception that children’s rights undermine parents’ authority over their children.

Given the findings, CAMFED’s programmes team will work with local stakeholders to investigate and plan programme activities, within the existing project budget, to further address prevailing beliefs in the project communities and promote children’s rights and the importance of education among parents, in particular with the following:  Including Child Protection and Safeguarding in the My Better World sessions led by Learner Guides;

 Providing further training for Teacher Mentors and Core Trainers in Child Rights and Child Protection;

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 Conducting community meetings on Child Protection, reviewing existing laws and regulations pertaining to education, child rights and the responsibilities of children and parents.

Outcome Indicator 4: Level of awareness and promotion among students, schools and school based community groups (SDCs) of children's rights in regard to early marriage (qualitative)

Outcome Indicator 4 Baseline (2019) Milestone Milestone Target 1 (2019) 2 (2020) (2021)

Level of awareness and Students, Teachers n/a n/a Qualitative promotion among students, and other school research is schools and school based staff demonstrated completed to community groups (SDCs) of a good level of explore children's rights in regard to awareness of students', early marriage (qualitative) children’s rights in teachers' and regard to early school based marriage. The community qualitative groups research indicates awareness of that more work is children's rights needed amongst in regard to early parents and by the marriage. The SDCs to reinforce target is to show the need to improvement protect children’s over the rights. baseline.

Improvements that CAMFED Zambia would like to see over the baseline include:

 SDCs, CDCs, TLs and other local stakeholder groups are committed to actively promoting child rights;  Reduced prevalence of the belief in project communities that children’s rights have negative consequences for parents, with parents demonstrating a greater understanding of the importance of child rights and a greater uptake;

 Teachers provide greater evidence of understanding of child rights, including laws and regulations protecting these rights.

The Re-Entry Policy

The Re-Entry Policy (REP) is a national intervention, launched in 1997, aimed at improving education opportunities for girls who become pregnant while in school. Prior to the introduction of the REP, pregnant school girls in Zambia were excluded from the education system permanently. A literature review, carried out in 2018 for CAMFED Zambia, funded by British Council Zambia, found that, despite the existence of the REP, a considerable number of girls still did not come back to education after

Page 15 of 21 giving birth. Among the major factors that prevent girls from returning to school nationally were an unsupportive school environment, a lack of financial support and a lack of counselling.

As can be seen in the two graphs below, which is based on official data, in 2015, 0.8% of female school students in Zambia became pregnant, and in 2016, only just over half (51%) of these girls re-entered education. While the trend for re-entries is gradually improving, there is still work to be done to enable girls to overcome barriers to re-entering education following pregnancy.

Source: 2014 and 2016 Zambian Education Statistical Bulletins, MoGE

Source: 2014 and 2016 Zambian Education Statistical Bulletins, MoGE

Since 2001, CAMFED Zambia has supported the Ministry of General Education (MoGE) in the promotion of the REP and in working on strategies to improve girls’ retention, protection and equity.

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In CAMFED’s partner schools, girls are encouraged to come back to school after their maternity leave through, for example, the training of Teacher Mentors to provide counselling and a positive and welcoming school community, and by making bursary support available for the most marginalised girls.

In order to provide a baseline for the logframe indicator on “actively enacting re-entry policy” a proxy measure was used: any schools which had welcomed re-entries to school after pregnancy in the last three years were counted as “actively enacting the re-entry policy”. However, it may be that some schools would have welcomed re-entries, but had no opportunity to do so because no students had gone on maternity leave. Using this proxy measure, the baseline data collected indicates that 67 out of the 75 schools had had re-entries in the last three years, i.e. 79% of project partner schools. The target for the project is to increase this percentage to 91%.

Output Indicator 3.2 Proportion of schools actively enacting re-entry policy

Output Indicator 3.2 Baseline Milestone 1 Milestone 2 Target (2018) (2019) (2020) (2021)

Proportion of schools actively 79% n/a n/a 91% enacting re-entry policy

All four partner schools involved in the qualitative study reported their ongoing implementation of the REP.. There appears to be widespread support for it from teachers, parents and students and in IDIs and FGDs, and there was little or no mention of adverse effects of re-entry, such as stigma, experienced by returning girls. Re-entered school girls reported strong support from teachers and friends on re-entry.

“My teachers and friends were happy to see me and I was encouraged to work hard, to even put in more effort. They encouraged me to concentrate and not to fall in the same trap again and use this chance to complete school.” FGD with re-entered school girls, secondary school, Sioma District.

It was reported that many parents proactively ensure that their daughter re-enters school after delivery, but even in households where parental support is weaker, students have actively sought to return to school.

“Some of us made our own decision after seeing that life was hard in marriage, so I made the decision to get back into school.” FGD with re-entered school girls, Secondary school, Sesheke District.

The schools seem to follow the guidelines required by the REP: a pregnant school girl gives notice to the school for maternity leave by completing a form on which she indicates the return date. This is the form she will report with on re-entry. There were a few reported cases, however, of re-entering girls being turned away by schools because they had not completed the maternity leave form at the time of pregnancy. These were often the result of school girls finding out they were pregnant while on school holidays and deciding not to return to school until after delivery.

Some girls were also not able to return to school due to poverty. The main reason for not returning to school mentioned by most of the permanently dropped-out former school girls who participated in

Page 17 of 21 the FGDs was lack of resources to meet educational costs, but almost all indicated their willingness to go back to school if given the opportunity.

Statistical records on re-entry were not immediately accessible at the four schools visited for the qualitative study and would require more time to validate due to the phenomenon of cross-transfer re-entries where girls return to continue education at a different school to the one they attended before the pregnancy. This makes performance assessment on the re-entry policy at school level problematic. However, there were anecdotal reports from teachers in the FGDs that, overall, the re- entry policy had reduced the incidence of early marriages.

“Yes, the policy has contributed to reducing early marriages because previously if one gets pregnant they would be forced into going into marriage knowing that they will not go to school again, but now they know they still have a chance through the re-entry policy. Especially here at our school I have seen students doing very well after getting back in school.” Head Teacher in a secondary school in Sioma District.

Some teachers felt that a strong system for following up with girls who become pregnant was needed to ensure that each school-girl is monitored after she leaves school until she has given birth to her baby. There were reports that some school-girls had been lost to the system in the past because nobody followed them up to ensure they returned to school after delivery.

Finally, there was a general feeling that more needs to be done to hold accountable the men responsible for the pregnancies and to enforce relevant legislation, recognising that these men are for the most part not in school themselves.

“What happens to out-of-school men who impregnate school girls? There is need for the policy to have an enforcement component for the men out of school, so that girls are protected from them because the majority of pregnancies are by men outside the school. For example, at [S---- ] secondary school, out of 12 girls who fell pregnant only 1 was by a school boy - the rest are from outside, what happens to them - nothing.” District Education Board Secretary’s office, Sioma District.

In cases where girls are victims of child sexual abuse, the challenge often lies with assembling corroborating evidence including the age of the victim as birth registration is still a challenge in rural areas.

Institutional stakeholders in the districts visited for the qualitative study were all supportive of the ongoing CAMFED programme activities; schools were particularly appreciative. School teachers mentioned, in particular, how CAMFED’s strategy of placing Teacher Mentors in schools has helped reduce early marriages and pregnancies among school girls to well below the levels they used to be at before the intervention.

“In school we have also pupils we call, the ‘agents of change’, and CAMFED has a lot of agents of change who are our (staff) members here. They are very effective, in the first place those that return (on re-entry policy) used to be seen (stigmatized) as outcasts by fellow pupils but with these interventions this has reduced, and we no longer have (schoolgirls) being forced to go into marriages.” Head Teacher in a secondary school in Sesheke District.

“With CAMFED programme support, one of the examples is where we (counselled and persuaded) some girls to leave their marriages and re-join their families so that they can continue with their education. I think the (CAMFED) counsellors have been effective because for this year we have no record of any pupil who is in marriage so I think the interventions are

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effective. I think without CAMFED that would not have been possible.” Head Teacher in a secondary school in Sioma District.

From a programmatic point of view, and in order to encourage schools to be active in their enactment of the re-entry policy, it is suggested that a checklist is developed of measures which should be taken by schools to provide evidence of active and continuing re-entry policy enactment, for example, providing psycho-social support, home visits, help with paperwork and a welcoming environment.

As part of this project, CAMFED will work with partner schools and communities to continue to deliver what is working well, for example through the work of Teacher Mentors, and also to address the specific challenges identified. For example, the work of Learner Guides is intended to strengthen follow-up of girls who do not report to school, and to ensure girls have all the support they need to facilitate their re-entry to school, including with the required paperwork. Targeted financial and material support provided through CAMFED’s programme as well as the philanthropic support from CAMA members will help support girls to meet the costs of education after pregnancy. Consultations will be carried out with stakeholder partners to determine any additional interventions that may be required. These may include:  Dissemination of Statutory and Legal provisions or instruments that are provided to protect girls from early marriage and sexual harassment;

 Support with assembling corroborating evidence for court cases;

 Advocacy with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of General Education and with communities and school administrations.

Local action in communities to enforce children’s rights

At district level, three government offices are most involved in girls’ education and activities to eradicate early marriages in the local communities: District Social Welfare office; District Education Board Secretary (DEBS)’s office; and the District Commissioner’s office. These offices are together responsible for ensuring girls have the resources and support to come to school and learn effectively, and for protecting and upholding the rights of vulnerable children, including through the eradication of child marriage.

From the qualitative study, the largest set of activities implemented by local government to prevent and terminate early marriages involves significant advocacy and local sensitization activities. Together with CAMFED and the local schools, sensitization activities on early marriages and education of marginalised girls are conducted within and outside the schools, in collaboration with local community leaders.

“Last week we had a meeting with local leaders where we were discussing the same issues of pregnancies and early marriages to try and spread the information.” Guidance & Counselling Teacher, secondary school, Sioma District.

In addition, operations are implemented to ‘rescue’ girls who have been married off to older men in the communities. District royal establishments, together with and through its teams of local Indunas (village headmen), are actively involved in the range of activities implemented to eradicate early marriages and promote girls’ education within each district. Interviews with community leaders in both Sioma and Sesheke Districts indicated three main types of activities undertaken by traditional leaders and village headmen to promote the education of girls in their communities: community

Page 19 of 21 sensitizations, counselling and guidance meetings, and one-on-one sessions with particularly affected parents or households.

“We talk to our communities. As community leaders we are sensitizing the community members so that the vices of early pregnant can reduce in our communities.” Community Leader, Sioma district.

“We talk to the parents so that they are aware that the education of their children is important.” Community Leader, Sioma district.

A major challenge for local government departments at district level is a lack of financial resources to meet the level of need in communities. For example, the Social Welfare Office is unable to sponsor all the girls who need support to remain in school; the DEBS Office is unable to reach all schools with the implementation of child rights promotion programmes; and, the District Commissioner’s Office continues to struggle to deliver their ideal programme of local sensitization and advocacy for girls’ education and against early marriages. Additional resources for all three strategies are needed to meet the scale and nature of the challenges around girls’ education and early marriage in these districts.

The IDIs with local government officials as part of the qualitative study suggest that CAMFED is the most active non-governmental organisation in Sioma and Sesheke districts promoting girls’ education. CAMFED is therefore well positioned to provide the additional resources needed.

Need for Positive Role Models

Amongst the social factors identified by participants in the qualitative study, positive role models came up in both FGDs and IDIs as a critical factor in engendering positive behaviour among girls. The lack of these positive role models was acknowledged across the board by respondents in the two study districts, but was particularly emphasized by government partners.

“There are very few female role models in the local community that have been seen to successfully motivate young girls to continue with education; for example, the work-force in the district, the majority are men.” District Education Board Secretary’s Office, Sioma District.

“They also lack a source of inspiration; it’s just everyday life, you wake up, you go to the farm, you eat. Girls do not see the benefits of going to school; they do not see maybe someone they can point at and say ‘we were at the same school, now she is this or that’. The girls do not get motivated, education it’s just like a story to them.” Social Welfare Officer, Sioma District.

The lack of positive role models exposes school girls to significant vulnerability, in terms of individual decision-making, that undermines their interest in and commitment to education, while the presence of positive role models helps manifest the benefits of education in the long term. Young women trained as Learner Guides under this project will serve to fill this ‘role model gap’ in schools, as young women from these same communities who have completed school and are now visible and respected as teachers, entrepreneurs, activists and philanthropists.

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Conclusion

 The Completion rate in Lower Secondary partner schools is already high, at 94.2%, and the project’s target for 2021 is 96.6%.

 The Completion rate in Upper Secondary partner schools is understandably not as high, at 88.4%, and the project’s target for 2021 is 89.6%.

 Drop-out due to pregnancy is currently reported as 2% in partner schools. The project’s target for 2021 is 1.7%.

 CAMFED’s partner schools are positive about Re-entry and are already making efforts to reach out to girls who have dropped out. 79% of partner schools have evidence of actively enacting the re-entry policy. The project’s target for 2021 is to increase this to 91%. The project will actively promote enforcement of the REP and help partner schools to address any challenges in its implementation, through specific capacity-building, advocacy and engagement with school and local government stakeholders. CAMFED will work with community partners to develop a checklist of measures which can be taken by schools to provide evidence of active and continuing re-entry policy enactment, for example, providing psycho-social support, home visits, help with paperwork, and a welcoming environment.

 Students, teachers and other school staff demonstrated a good level of awareness of children’s rights in regard to early marriage. The qualitative research indicates that more work is needed amongst parents and by the SDCs to reinforce the need to protect children’s rights. CAMFED will work with community partners to investigate any activities that can be carried out to further promote the importance of education and children’s rights in these communities. Learner Guides will provide follow-up visits to the homes of girls at risk of dropping out.

 The qualitative study validated CAMFED Zambia’s understanding that role models for young women in rural Zambia are lacking and that these can be an important source of motivation and encouragement for girls in these communities. The Learner Guide intervention is designed to meet this need. CAMFED Zambia will work with the LGs to ensure their interventions are targeted at supporting young girls to successfully progress through and complete secondary school.

 This baseline report highlights areas where additional activities or support may be needed, such as further training on Child Rights for teachers, and the inclusion of a Child Protection and Safeguarding element in the My Better World sessions led by Learner Guides. The suggestions for further activities mentioned in this report originate from the CAMFED Zambia Programmes team who will consult further with local stakeholders as they embed the learning from this baseline.

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