ToR "GENDER EQUALITY AND CHILD PROTECTION
Ending Child Marriage in Ethiopia
TERMS OF REFERENCE TO CONDUCT FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT"
BACKGROUND
The Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) 2016 shows that of young women aged 20–24 years, 40.3% were married before the legal age of 18 and 14.1% were married before the age of 15. The trend in child marriage has shown a reduction from 75% in 1980, 60% in 2005 and 40.3% in 2016. At the national level, marriage by the age of 15 is dropping quickly. Of girls aged 15-19, only 5.7% were married by the age of 15. This can be compared to 14.1% of women aged 20-24. While the practice is declining overall, there are variations across and within regions in the prevalence of child marriage; Amhara region having one of the highest child marriage rates across the country with limited progress made towards eliminating child marriage. In Amhara region, the percentage of women who were first married by age 20 to 24 in the region was 43 percent. The region has the lowest median age of marriage which is 15.1. Although some older girls, particularly those who have attended secondary school, have increasing input into who and when they will marry, most marriages in Amhara are arranged. Even those girls who are consulted have quite limited say in their marriage.
There are multi-faceted social, economic, religious and cultural drivers of child marriage in Ethiopia. Gender norms that stigmatize girls and their families for girls’ premarital sexual activity and premarital pregnancy are one of the largest drivers of child marriage in Ethiopia. Parents feel responsible to marry their daughters early to protect their chastity in addition to securing young girls from sexual exploitation and abuse. Traditional narratives about the relationship between economics and child marriage have emphasized poverty, and while these narratives continue to be important in the poorest households, consolidating or demonstrating wealth rather than poverty has emerged as an important reason why parents marry of their daughters.
It is also imperative to keep in mind that while recent trends show adolescent girls are ‘choosing’ to get married for different reasons, girls’ beliefs and decisions are shaped by social norms and the limited options outside of marriage they perceive to have (i.e. of completing a full cycle of education and progressing to employment). The low value placed on girls’ education and lack of alternatives for girls who have dropped out of school, exacerbate the practice of child marriage further. Once married, many girls discontinue their education.
Child brides are at increased risk of gender-based violence (GBV) and are also often socially isolated, with limited opportunity to participate in the development of their communities because of domestic workloads and restrictions on their mobility.
Studies indicate that child marriage is one of the main underlying causes for child mortality in Ethiopia. Girls married early are at greater risk of reproductive health complications including obstetric fistula due to prolonged and obstructed labor. Girls aged 15 to 19, and girls who bear children before age 15 are five times more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes compared to older mothers. Large spousal age differences are common in cases of child marriages. The mean age difference between spouses is 10 years in cases of girls marrying before age 15. This has potential implication on limited autonomy, power and decision making for married girls, thereby increasing the likelihood that the girl will experience violence and health risks including HIV. They are at much risk due to their low knowledge and control over their reproductive health. Most of married girls have no or limited education and cannot which potentially leads to poverty and economic insecurity.
The practice of child marriage plays a part in reinforcing stereotypical gender norms and gender inequality, and has multifaceted negative effects on the health, well-being, productivity and economic independence of women and girls. Child marriage has economic implications for affected girls as well as significant costs for the country. Limitations on their educational attainment affect their participation in the productive economy. Even when young brides do manage to participate in education or the labor market, this may be compromised by domestic duties, early pregnancy and related complications, maternal mortality and the duty of child care.
Currently, Save the Children International in Ethiopia (SCI) is implementing a project entitled ‘Ending Child Marriage’ (ECM) with funding from Save the Children USA to address issues of child marriage and negative gender norms affecting the lives of women and girls in Ethiopia. As part of the project activities, Save the Children has planned to conduct assessments to understand how existing SCI Ethiopia projects are working to prevent child marriage and changing negative gender norms, assess staff knowledge and attitudes on gender and child protection, and explore the barriers and facilitators of child marriage across SCI targeted communities that will feed in to methodologies for addressing the practices. This TOR is developed to guide the overall assessment.
PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES
The overall purpose of the assessment is twofold; first, assess Save the Children work internally by conducting a scan of organization’s internal capacity in addressing issues of child marriage in programs. Second, explore community level barriers and drivers of child marriage through formative research. The findings of the assessment will be use to inform capacity development plan for SCI as well as the design of a community based gender norms change methodologies.
Specific objectives of the assessment are:
· Understand how SCI programs/projects are mainstreaming issues of gender and integrate interventions that address negative gender norms.
· Identify the capacity and knowledge of Save the Children staff on gender and child protection.
· Assess the drivers of, facilitators as well as barriers to child marriage of child marriage in selected SCI targeted woredas in Amhara region;
· Generate practical recommendations pertaining the objective areas.
While the available information on child marriage in Ethiopia is both quantitative and qualitative in nature, SCI has identified the need to obtain additional in-depth, qualitative information on the underlying social, cultural, and economic factors that motivate and sustain the practice of child marriage in selected Woredas.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The assessment will respond to the following series of targeted questions in order to achieve its objectives:
1. What is the extent to which SCI programs/projects are mainstreaming issues of gender and integrate interventions that address negative gender norms?
· What is the level of staff knowledge and capacity on gender equality and child protection issues related to child marriage?
· What is the extent to which existing SCI projects address child marriage throughout project cycle?
· What opportunities do SCI programs and projects have to mainstream child marriage prevention and response interventions?
2. What are the underlying causes of child marriage within families and communities in the Amhara region in the selected zone and woredas?
· Why are boys and girls marrying? Are reasons for marriage different for boys than for girls?
· What types of households are most affected by child marriage?
· Which boys and girls are most likely to marry as children (e.g. consider orphans or out-of-school children, different age, ethnicity, religion, disability and economic status)?
· What are the benefits associated with child marriage? What are the risks?
· What are the benefits associated with not marrying? What are the risks for children who do not marry?
3. How do social and cultural beliefs and traditions promote or prevent child marriage?
· What are the understandings that communities have of who is and is not a child?
· What are the beliefs, norms, and values that underlie or promote child marriage?
· What is the level of awareness of child marriage as a harmful practice for children?
· What motivates community members to uphold or to try to stop the marriage of children?
· Are there some community members whose sons and daughters are not entering child marriages? If so, what is their rationale for not doing so? How does the wider community perceive or respond to the decision not to marry as a child?
· What are the existing opportunities and local solutions that can be leveraged to mitigate and prevent child marriage?
· What are the different rites of passage that girls and boys undergo? What role, if any, do these have in preparing children for marriage? Are these practices different or similar in urban and rural areas? By religion? By sex?
4. To what extent are communities influenced by community leaders/members, media and communications, and legal and policy frameworks related to child marriage?
· How do communities react to community leaders who speak out against child marriage? How do these messages resonate or not with communities?
· How do communities react to messages against child marriage from media (radio, newspaper)? From the government? How do these messages resonate or not with communities?
· Are communities aware of the national laws relating to child marriage? How do these laws resonate with communities? Do they find them relevant?
· How do communities resolve violations of children’s rights, including child marriage? Do communities engage formal or informal/customary legal entities, and which ones?
· What do communities need in order to rely on formal legal entities to resolve violations of children’s rights and reduce child marriage?
· What legal and policy changes need to be implemented at the community, provincial, and national levels to reduce child marriage?
· What coordination or referral system does exist between key stakeholders to prevent and respond to child marriage?
SCOPE OF THE ASSESSMENT
The formative assessment at community level will take place in Amhara region in one selected zone and in three woredas where SCI is currently implementing projects. The exact zone and woredas will be selected up on consultation with SCI head office and field office staff and the consultant. The SCI focused assessment will target program/projects as well as technical staffs across SCI offices including the HO.
RESEARCH DESIGN
A mixed-methods approach will be used to explore the research questions above. This methodology was deemed most appropriate because of the variety of questions under investigation and because different methods and sources are needed to triangulate participants’ perspectives with data and research findings from other sources. Quantitative components aim to describe trends, level of staff knowledge, produce benchmarks, and describe target populations in a general way. Qualitative components aim to explore context-specific forms of understanding, perspectives, stories, discourses, and experiences of participants that are not otherwise meaningfully expressed by quantitative methods. By capturing data from different contexts and different respondent groups, the research is designed to acquire a cumulative view and information that is as valid, reliable, and objective as possible.
The mixture of research methods will include:
Document review. The study will commence with a document review of secondary literature to understand the drivers of child marriage and existing evidence on prevention and response to child marriage in Ethiopia in general and in Amhara region in particular. Additionally, SCI program and project documents will also be reviewed to assess the extent to which they integrate child marriage issues.
Survey. A targeted survey will be developed and distributed to males and females between 15-24 years old in the woredas of the study. The survey consists of a short set of questions informed by the document review. The questions will be designed to provide generalizable data at the woreda level, and a multivariate analysis of household data will help identify factors that determine or are correlated with child marriage prevalence. Parallel, a questionnaire for SCI staff will be developed and administered to understanding their level of knowledge and attitude towards the practice of child marriage.
Key informant interviews. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted in-person at the zone and woreda, and community levels. All of the sessions will explore stakeholders’ perceptions and knowledge of child marriage in the selected zone and woredas. Influential community leaders will be interviewed in each woreda since they are assumed to be part of the social reference group that influences the behavior of parents and adolescents. Table 1 below lists the target population for agencies, organizations, and other individuals who will likely participate in key informant interviews for this study.
Table 1. Target Population for key informants
Key informants, provincial level |
· Government officials working in child protection, education · Civil society organizations · Community leaders · Religious leaders · Community social welfare workers · Health workers (government and civil society) · Police officers, judges |
Focus group discussions. These discussions will be held with community members in the selected woredas using semi-structured questions and participatory techniques. All of the sessions will explore participants’ specific experiences and opinions about child marriage in an open, flexible, and engaging way. Each group discussion will be led by one same-sex facilitator and participants’ comments and discussion will be recorded by a same-sex note-taker. All respondents will receive informed consent or assent and facilitators will not proceed with the focus group discussions without obtaining informed consent. Similarly, FGDs will be conducted with SCI thematic sector staffs to assess how projects and programs have mainstreamed child marriage in program management cycles. Table 2 below lists the target population categories who will likely participate in community focus groups for this study.
Table 2: Target Population for community focus groups
Child respondent groups in each site | Adult respondent groups in each site | SCI level |
· Unmarried girls ages 15-18 · Married girls ages 15-18 · Unmarried boys ages 15-18 · Married boys ages 15-18 | · Unmarried women ages 18-30 · Married women ages 18-30 · Unmarried men ages 18-30 · Married men ages 18-30 | · Education thematic sector · Child Protection thematic sector · Food Security and Livelihoods thematic sector · WASH thematic sector · Sponsorship · Health and Nutrition thematic sector · Child rights and governance thematic sector · Humanitarian response teams |
Testimonies. Individual testimonies will be used to gather personal life stories from adults about their perceptions and experiences of child marriage, including those who have decided not to enter child marriage or not to marry their daughter or son (this study is calling such individuals “change-makers;” they are positive deviants in their communities). Additionally, data collectors will seek testimonials from men who did choose to enter a child marriage, and from community leaders who take no position on child marriage. This will provide an understanding of how these individuals rationalize child marriage in their decision-making. The in-depth testimonials will illustrate and give meaning to salient issues that emerge from the primary and secondary data.
Table 3: Target Population for testimonies
Community Change-makers | Community Members |
Female/male parents (ages 18+) who chose NOT to marry their daughter or son as a child | Female/male parents (ages 18+) who DID choose to marry their daughter or son as a child |
Women (ages 18-30) who chose NOT to enter a child marriage as a young girl | Women (ages 18-30) who DID enter a child marriage as a young girl |
Men (ages 18+) who chose NOT to enter a child marriage with a young girl | Men (ages 18+) who DID choose to enter a child marriage |
Religious and community leaders (ages 18+) who advocate against child marriage | Religious and community leaders (ages 18+) who take no position on child marriage |
Upon conclusion of data collection for each component, the research team will undertake a mixed methods analysis of the data. The mixed methods analysis will triangulate trends from the document review, the quantitative and qualitative methods to develop a set of preliminary findings and actionable recommendations. The preliminary findings and recommendations will be shared with key stakeholders in Save the Children to be discussed and validated before finalization.
Sampling: Purposive sampling techniques will be used to determine the specific communities for participation in the study. Using a purposive sample enables research sites to be selected where there is the greatest likelihood of learning about the specific issues being researched. The procedure and criteria for selecting and recruiting stakeholders varies for each research method involved in this study.
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Bearing in mind the sensitive nature of the issue, specific consideration will be given to ethical issues of research design, piloting of data collection tools, data collection, analysis, interpretation, reporting and storage. Trust, sensitivity and ethical procedures are essential, therefore, the design of the tools, the phrasing of the questions and the skills of the enumerators are key to obtaining valid data. The enumerators will be trained on ethical considerations, consent and coercion, child safeguarding, non-judgmental data collection and ethical interviewing, as well as the specific use of the research tools, confidentiality and secured data handling.
DELIVERABLES/OUTPUT
The following deliverables or output are expected from the assessment.
• Inception report with detailed and comprehensive assessment design and plans,
• Data collection tools to be used in capturing all the required information,
• Draft assessment report to be reviewed by SCI team (separate reports are required for the formative assessment and the internal capacity assessment),
• Presentation on the revised draft reports on a validation workshop to be organized by Save the Children (separate presentation for the two assessment),
• Final assessment reports that incorporates feedbacks obtained from the workshop and submitted both in hard and soft copies (separate assessment reports for the two reports),
• Raw and organized data.
Time Frame of the assessment
The whole assessment will be handled and final report will be submitted to SCI in 45 working days. The consultant is expected to provide detail time frame for completing the task.
Roles of Save the Children
· Develop and share TOR for the assessment,
· Hold initial meeting with the consultant/firm to clarify the task further and exchange ideas on the overall process and flow of the work,
· Organize induction on child safeguarding,
· Oversee the recruitment and training of enumerators,
· Avail background information and relevant documents to be reviewed during the assessment,
· Provide timely feedback on the inception report, data collection tools and methodology as well as in the draft reports,
· Workout detailed arrangement for conducting the assessment,
· Write support letters to relevant government and non-government offices,
· Make payment as per the agreement.
Roles of the consultant/firm
· Develop inception report including desk review, assessment methodology and data collection tools,
· Recruit and train data collectors,
· Work closely with SCI staffs throughout the assessment period,
· Collect, translate transcribe, code, analysis data and write report,
· Produce timely draft assessment report following the standard reporting format,
· Carry out the assessment work in line with agreed standards,
· Prepare and present preliminary findings on validation workshops,
· Meet deadline in developing and sharing detail assessment methodology and draft/final reports,
Profile of the consultant/firm
This consultancy assignment is open for all legally registered experienced multi-disciplinary team of experts. The consultant/s or firm shall consist of professionals with relevant backgrounds. Candidates shall have the following expertise and qualifications:
• A minimum of a post-graduate degree in Gender Studies, Social Work, Sociology, Psychology, and other related fields.
• Excellent understanding and experience in assessment of gender and child protection programs in Ethiopian context.
• Experience with data collection on sensitive issues such as child marriage.
• Knowledge and experience of using participatory qualitative and quantitative methodologies.
• Proven experience in conducting a quantitative survey using electronic data collection templates
• Strong analytical, writing, reporting and presentation skills in English language.
• Strong child rights programming skills (child participation skills an asset).