Study on early marriages, reproductive health and human rights

Background:
Gender based violence is a violation of human rights that deprives girls and women their right to full participation the
communities they live in. In the gender based program in Mali, NCA’s is focusing on fighting against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Early Marriage (EM) for the following reasons which remain “normal” practices in Mali.

Purpose/ Objective:
The study will be used as a tool to put in place appropriate programs in order to fight a practice that deprives young girls of their basic human rights.

The main aim with this study was to collect basic information on early marriages, early pregnancies and reproductive health in the region of Timbuktu. The study was carried out in Dire, Gourma Rharous, and Niafunke which are NCA’s zones of intervention and where these cultural practices are deeply rooted in the communities.  

Methodology:
The study collected information on the following topics:

- To assess early marriage practices (frequency, motivation/attitudes) in the geographical areas where NCA and its
partners work;
- Determine the reproductive health challenges in the target area;
- Clarify the relationships between early marriage and reproductive health challenges and their consequences on the
people who are affected.

Key Findings:
• The sociological profile of the women surveyed shows a representation of the main ethnic groups in the region:
Songhoï, Tamashek, Fulani, Arab, and Bambara.  Age group distribution is 74% of girls and women aged 18 and above, 15% between 9 and 14 years old and 11% between 15 and 17 years old. Common for the women in the study is that they have very little or no formal education.
• The proportion of married women is 59% against 25 % of single women, 12 % are widows and
4 % are divorced.  78 % of the married women are in monogamous household against 22 % who are in a polygamous one. Marriages among family members represent 85 % of marital unions against 15 % for exogamic ones.  97 % of marriages are arranged by parents against 3 % based on girls’ choice.

The study shows that a woman gives birth to an average of 7 children; 3 of whom survive and 3 whom dies at an early age. On an average every woman experiences the death of one child at birth.

The findings show high frequency levels of early marriage; 58 % of the women surveyed got married before they turned 18; 39 % married between 15 and 17 years old, and 19 % before they turned 15.  The study shows some geographical differences. In general early marriage is less frequent in Timbuktu than in the regions of Gao and Mopti where they represent almost 75 % of the marriages.

Ethnic background, marital status and endogamy are the main defining factors of early marriage in this region.  In fact the practice of early marriage is less common among the Bambara than among the Songhoï, Tamashek, Arab and Fulani. The statistics show that less than 8 % of the Bambara are practicing early marriages while the frequency is from 17 to 20 % among other ethnic groups in the region. This difference between the Bambara and other groups has also been found in Mopti and Gao.

Marital practices based on arranged marriages by parents are dominant and contribute to the practice of early marriage. About one third of marriages are based on the free choice of the girl. In approximately 50 % of the marriages arranged by parents the girls are under the age if 18. None of the marriages based on the choice of the girl are very early while this is the case in 39 % of the marriages arranged by parents.

Early marriages are more frequent in polygamous households than in monogamous households.  The prevalence of early marriages in polygamous households is 65 % against 55 % of monogamous households. The reasons for early marriages are usually related to social prestige and the whish for numerous offspring.

Finally, early marriage is more common among younger generations (married women aged under 30), than among the older generations (more than 30 years old and specifically more than 50 years old). This is obviously due to the fact that girls are physical maturing at an early age these days and the importance of such criterion in the marriage decision making process

Recommendations:
- Prevention work:
o Awareness building among parents to make them understand the serious consequences early marriages can have
on the wellbeing of their daughter.
o Increased engagement of local authorities and men in the fight to end the practice of early marriages.
o Using “the national health day” to raise awareness
o Alphabetisation of parents and increased focus on girls’ educations as well as education on sexuality in schools
and of the general public through media channels and public meetings.
o Make sure that the civil code on marriage in Mali is in line with international conventions on the rights of the child.
o Vide distribution of this study which will also be used in the advocacy work to put an end to the practices of early
marriages.
o Use the experience of women being victims of this practice in the information dissemination work at health centres
as a way to put and end to this practice.

- Support to girls/women who are victims of early marriages:
o Information dissemination work in the region where early marriages are common to make sure that victims of fistula
get to know the causes of their problems and make operations available. 
o Advocacy work to make the fistula operation free at public hospitals
o Continue the capacity building of health workers in Mali to make sure that the there is fistula expertise locally both
on the physical and psychosocial aspect of the diseases and of other physical and psychosocial consequences of early marriages.
o Make sure that the health centres have the information material and equipment that they need in order to meet the needs of the women being victims of EM and in order to work on awareness building to change behaviours and put and end to this practise.