Dreaming a Better of Life Dreaming of a Better Life Child Marriage Through Adolescent Eyes Putting an end to the practice of child marriage became an international commitment Child Marriage Through Adolescent Eyes under Sustainable Development Goal 5 that focuses on empowering girls and women worldwide. Dreaming of a Better Life: Child Marriage Through Adolescent Eyes offers fresh insights and evidence to inform these efforts, based on fi ndings from research and intervention projects funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to investigate different aspects of child marriage. Spanning rural and urban settings across Bangladesh, Côte d’Ivoire, India, Mali, Niger, Pakistan, Peru, Senegal, Togo and Zambia, the chapters address themes such as adolescent girls’ agency and roles in marital decision-making, teenage motherhood, sexual and gender-based violence against children, and lessons learned from trying to infl uence policies and implement programmes to reduce child marriage. The short chapters, and mix of photo, visual, interview and traditional reporting formats, are designed to appeal to policymakers in their national contexts, as well as resonate with others committed to supporting and empowering marginalised children and young people everywhere. Dreaming of a Better Life Child Marriage Through Adolescent Eyes Editors: Gina Crivello and Gillian Mann Dreaming of a Better Life Child Marriage Through Adolescent Eyes Edited by Gina Crivello and Gillian Mann Young Lives Oxford International Development Research Centre Ottawa • Amman • Dakar • Montevideo • Nairobi • New Delhi Dreaming of a Better Life: Child Marriage Through Adolescent Eyes First published by Young Lives in 2020 Editorial matter, selection and introduction © Gina Crivello and Gillian Mann 2020 Individual chapters © contributors 2020 ISBN 978-1-912485-28-4 Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 Available from: Young Lives Department of International Development University of Oxford 3 Mansfield Road Oxford OX1 3TB, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1865 281751 Email: [email protected] www.younglives.org.uk A co-publication with: International Development Research Centre PO Box 8500 Ottawa, Ontario K1G 3H9 Canada www.idrc.ca / [email protected] ISBN: 978-1-55250-613-4 (IDRC e-book) The research presented in this publication was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of IDRC or its Board of Governors. Recommended citation: Crivello, G., and G. Mann (eds) (2020) Dreaming of a Better Life: Child Marriage Through Adolescent Eyes, Oxford: Young Lives/Ottawa: International Development Research Centre. Contents Notes on contributors 5 Preface 9 Introduction 11 THEME 1: Adolescent girls’ agency and roles in marital decision-making 19 Binary Framing of Consent and Coercion of Child Marriage: A Critique Seama Mowri, Rafia Sultana, Subas Biswas, Raia Azmi, Sairana Ahsan, and Sabina F. Rashid 21 Unlocking Girls’ Agency: Lessons from the Humsathi Interventional Study in Pakistan Farida Shaheed and Ghausia Rashid Salam 33 Breaking the Silence: Why do Young Women in Peru Marry or Cohabit at a Young Age, and What are the Consequences? Vanessa Rojas, Francis Bravo, and Nikki van der Gaag 49 THEME 2: Daily lives and experiences of married girls and boys and young people 61 The Heterogeneous Lives of Adolescent Girls and Young Women in Urban Slums in Bangladesh Sairana Ahsan, Seama Mowri, Subas Biswas, Rafia Sultana, Raia Azmi, and Sabina F. Rashid 63 Bridget’s Story: A Photo Story of Adolescent Motherhood in Zambia Gillian Mann and Oliver Mweemba 79 Early Marriage among Adolescent Boys and Young Men in Urban Informal Settlements of Bangladesh Subas Biswas, Raia Azmi, Seama Mowri, Sairana Ahsan, Rafia Sultana, and Sabina F. Rashid 95 THEME 3: Child marriage on the continuum of sexual and gender-based violence 107 The Consummation of Early Marriage as Sexual Violence: Analysis of the Relevance and Impact of a Strategy Based on the Law to Prevent Early Marriage in Kolda, Senegal Oumoul Khaïry Coulibaly-Tandian 109 Public Space Safety and Security for Women and Girls in Rural Gujarat, India: A Factor in Early and Young Age Marriage Poonam Kathuria and Subhalakshmi Nandi, interviewed by Gina Crivello 121 THEME 4: Policies and programmes to reduce child marriage in different settings 129 Early Marriage in Mali, Niger and Togo: Data from Studies in Local Communities Ambroise Aladji-Weka, Hugues Fonzan, and Nicole Gbedeba Dagawa, with Nikki van der Gaag 131 Public Policies and Social Justice in the Struggle to Abolish Child Marriage in Ivory Coast and Senegal Fatou Diop Sall, Koffi Ludovic Ehouma, Ramata Molo Thioune, and Zeinaba Kane 135 Preventing and Combatting Early Marriage in Togo: Lessons from an Experimental Study Lead by the NGO Women in Law and Development in Africa–Afrique de l’Ouest (WiLDAF-AO) in the Communes of Lama-Tessi (Central Region) and Tamongue (Savanna Region) of Togo Jean-Paul Akakpo-Ahianyo and Atavi Mensah Edorh, interviewed by Marie Reine Toudeka 147 Influencing Policy to Reduce Child Marriage in India Renu Singh, interviewed by Kath Ford 155 Acknowledgements and credits 162 5 Notes on contributors Sairana Ahsan is Program Manager-Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) at CARE Bangladesh, addressing the SRH needs of adolescent girls and women in emergencies. Previously, she worked as a Research Fellow at the BRAC School of Public Health, BRAC University, Dhaka. She has an MSc in Public Health from the University of Bedfordshire, UK with a Commonwealth Scholarship. Her career focus and research interests include sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), women’s health, gender, adolescent health, sexual and reproductive health in education, and visual representation of research and knowledge. Ambroise Aladji-Weka has worked in the field of communications, digital media, IT, and project management for more than 15 years. As a consultant for WiLDAF-AO, he manages the creation of publicity materials. He worked closely with stakeholders and collaborators and oversaw the production of the infographic ‘Early Marriage in Mali, Niger and Togo: Data from Studies in Local Communities’ presented in this volume. Jean-Paul Akakpo-Ahianyo, PhD, is a Lecturer in the Sociology of Education and a Researcher at the Demographic Research Unit at the University of Lomé, Togo. He supported the monitoring and evaluation activities and reporting of the Togo component of WiLDAF-AO’s research on early marriage in Mali, Niger and Togo. Raia Azmi is a Research Fellow and junior faculty at the Master of Public Health programme of the BRAC School of Public Health, BRAC University, and holds MBBS and MPH degrees. Her research interests include child marriage, persons with disabilities, adolescent health, gender, and sexual and reproductive health and rights, as well as implementation research, and monitoring and evaluation. Subas Biswas is a Senior Research Fellow at the BRAC School of Public Health, BRAC University. He has Master’s degrees in Botany, Development Studies, and Public Health, and focuses on gender, sexual and reproductive health and rights, marginalised community empowerment and development. His expertise is in designing research and interventions, including developing Behavioural Change Communication and implementation. Francis Bravo is an anthropologist from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. He holds a diploma in Youth Studies and Policies in Latin America from the Latin American Faculty for Social Sciences, FLACSO, Argentina. Currently he is an Assistant Researcher at the Group for the Analysis of Development (GRADE). He supported the YMAPS study in Peru, undertaking the fieldwork component and contributing to data analysis. Oumoul Khaïry Coulibaly-Tandian holds a PhD in Social Anthropology and is an Associate Lecturer at the Higher School of Applied Economics, Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar. She specialises in gender issues and the management of development projects, and is the coordinator and principal researcher on an action research project on access to justice for rural women and girls who are victims of sexual violence in Senegal and Mauritania. 6 Gina Crivello is a Senior Researcher with Young Lives, University of Oxford, UK, where she leads the research on gender, adolescence and youth. She is co-Principal Investigator of the Young Marriage and Parenthood Study (YMAPS) funded by IDRC. Her current research explores the interrelated schooling, work and marriage trajectories of girls and boys who grow up in poverty and their support needs as they transition to adulthood. Nicole Gbedeba Dagawa, a lawyer by training, is a Communications Assistant at Women in Law and Development in Africa-Afrique de l’Ouest (WiLDAF-AO), and has eight years of experience in the field of development and women’s and girls’ rights. She has a Master’s degree in public law from the University Félix Houphouët-Boigny. Fatou Diop Sall is a social anthropologist at the University Gaston Berger (UGB) of Saint Louis, Senegal, where she is the President of the Gender Committee. She is a member of the Certificate of Advanced Studies at the Graduate Institute (IHEID) teaching team in Geneva, and the Coordinator of the Gender and Societies Research Group (GESTES). Fatou is also the Team Leader of the ‘Kick it like a girl: women in the African public space’ project, and is