This presentation by Alula Pankhurst, Young Lives Ethiopia Country Director, was delivered as part of the Child Protection panel at the 'Young Lives, child poverty and lessons for the SDGs' conference on 27th June, 2018.

1. Child Protection Panel
‘How can we best support young people in
situations of adversity?
Young Lives, Child Poverty and Lessons for the SDGs
Alula Pankhurst
Young Lives Ethiopia Director
@yloxford
@alulapan

2. Outline
• Social and cultural change
• Examples:
• Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting
• Child, Early and Forced Marriage
• Range of interventions
• What works to promote change?

3. Social and Cultural Change
Factors that influence behaviours and practices
Economic
factors/financial access
Supply and quality
of services
Legislation
Policies
Need to ‘unpack’ the ‘social’ box

4. FGM/C and child marriage worldwide

5. Marriage and fertility across the 4 countries
37
21
25 24
19
1213
9
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
women married by 19 given birth by 19
Women married by 19 and having given birth
India Peru Vietnam Ethiopia

6. FGM/C and Child Marriage Africa

7. Overlap within Ethiopia - but cultural variations

8. Declining - but urban and regional differences

9. • Government policy and practice
• International organisations,
donor projects, NGOs media etc
• Broader modernisation forces
• Education for girls
• Employment, migration
• Changing value systems
• Still high prevalences
• Logics and rationales remain
• Legal enforcement unintended
harmful consequences.
• Girls arguing right to decide
• 15-18 year olds sexually active
• Limited contraception, abortion
Why practices changing? Persistence and resistance

10. Customary logics of child marriage and FGM/C
• Child marriage ‘customary child protection’ logic in conflict with
international norms.
• Risks for teenage girls of abduction and rape,
• Sex before marriage, family reputation and honour
• Ensuring daughters ‘looked after’ by arranging suitable
marriage
• Female circumcision/FGM
• Custom seen as related to purity and protecting virginity
• In some societies equated with male circumcision performed
at birth
• In other societies at puberty seen as a prerequisite for
marriage
• Common underlying patriarchal values controlling young
women’s sexuality and fertility

11. FGM/C: Peer pressure and resistance to ban
“In July 2008, I organised the circumcision of my other daughter
who is 14. It was done at her request. After she witnessed a girl
insulting another who was not circumcised, my daughter came
home and asked me to organize her circumcision. She told me
she does not want to be insulted in the same way. I told her I
cannot do that because I could not afford to provide her good
food like meat to heal. I suspected her father would not be
willing to provide it. But she pushed and told me she did care
about this and what she wanted was to get circumcised. Luckily,
her father agreed and slaughtered a goat. She healed in two
weeks. We did the circumcision in the evening for the fear of
the local officials who could punish us. Despite being prohibited
by the local officials everybody circumcises their daughter “
(Mother in Young Lives Oromia site)

12. Child marriage with girl’s consent
“I got married last January (2011) aged 15; my husband is my neighbour. I
was willing to marry; nobody forced me. I am happy with my marriage
because it was arranged by my mother. It also relieved me of the heavy wage
labour. Before, I had no plan of marrying early. But when I stopped school and
was engaged in a very tiresome job, I wanted to marry and take rest. During
the wedding ceremony our neighbours contributed 600 birr and my mother
some more for the feast. My in-laws spent much money and grain because
they can afford it. My mother gave my husband on the wedding day 1,300
Birr payment, from my older sister who works in a factory in a town. My
husband bought me all necessary clothes. After the marriage we are
sharecropping the land of my mother and help her in many ways. I have
two worries. First, I do not think I will continue my school because my
husband will not allow me. Secondly, I do not want to have a child before
five years, but I fear my husband and my parents would force me to have
one too soon. You may find me with my child when you come next time.’
(15 year old girl in Tigray, with child when we visited her a year later)

13. Interventions
Range of interventions mentioned
• Imposing bans, prosecution of parents, circumcisers, age tests for
marriage
• Follow up through schools, girls clubs, health and gender workers,
• Promoting education; Incentives not to marry - NGO projects
Risks of practices going underground – unintended
consequences
• Young Lives evidence of girls arranging their own circumcisions in
secret
• Ways of getting round child marriage ban (claiming older, girls
consenting)
Girls who don’t see better alternatives may prefer to marry
‘early’
• Not doing well at school, jobs not available locally, do not want to
migrate, become pregnant, do not want an abortion.

14. What works – to promote change?
Addressing different decision-makers in combination
• Parents and especially fathers very influential (YL father’s
education)
• Religious and customary leaders
• Empowering girls themselves, girls’ clubs, youth and women’s
groups
• Working with boys, partners, future husbands, mixed clubs
Promoting girls’ economic opportunities
• Rather than focusing mainly on the practices, promote
transitions
• Reproductive health access, contraception, abortion, child care.
• Education, scholarships, support at schools, promoting
secondary
• Training and transition to work as alternatives to early marriage

15. What works – to promote change?
Pragmatic focus on the worst more extreme
aspects first
• Within FGM types, infibulation most risky; easier to
argue against
• Child marriage - most agree about stopping pre-teen
marriage
Focus on girls social empowerment and agency
• Concentrate on forced marriage rather than just age
• Younger teenagers more risks; less choice, foster
earlier awareness
Promote increased change in associated practices
• Changes in practices of marriage payments
• Changes in customs of imposed parental decision
making
Networking for national and international support