Emilly C. Maractho

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Use multifaceted approach to end child marriages

What you need to know:

  • Statistics have a way of jolting people into awareness. The figures of teenage pregnancies from these communities are easy to deny, and for us to ask, do these teenage girls really exist in these thousands? And if what we hear is only reported cases, how many more thousands go unreported? And what can we really do to put an end to this dilemma? 

While national leaders were launching a yearlong campaign against defilement, early marriages and failed parenthood in Kampala on December 3, Plan International Uganda and Nebbi District Local Government were holding a regional conference on the theme ‘Ending Teenage Pregnancy and Child, Early Forced Marriage through education’. 

The conference, officiated by the minister for Northern Uganda, Ms Grace Freedom Kwiyucwiny, brought together a wide range of leaders from Nebbi, Pakwach, Zombo and Adjumani districts. 

Listening to Dr Janestic Mwende Twikirize of Makerere University present her findings on the social traditional norms and child marriage research, which was commissioned by Plan International Uganda to cover these four districts of West Nile, was nostalgic but also returned that sense of privilege you feel, that somehow, you survived it all. 

From this research, it may seem that we often underestimate the role that social traditional norms play in stealing girls’ dreams for a brighter future and keeping them out of school. Documenting the many social norms that promote early and child marriage, the key drivers of early pregnancy and the impact of these on education of girls is an important way of dealing with this problem. 

Statistics have a way of jolting people into awareness. The figures of teenage pregnancies from these communities are easy to deny, and for us to ask, do these teenage girls really exist in these thousands? And if what we hear is only reported cases, how many more thousands go unreported? And what can we really do to put an end to this dilemma? 

During the one-day conference, Ms Kwiyucwiny, took the trouble to break down the latest figures of poverty distribution in the region, per sub-county, and some of them are so high, nearing 50 percent.

 This may provide us with some answers. What it means, is that early pregnancies, teenage and forced marriages are all symptoms of poverty and a broken social system. 

We cannot imagine that this is mainly a problem for education either. There are huge health issues associated with teenage pregnancies, early and forced marriages. 

The implication of these pregnancies in their many thousands is that young people are not abstaining, and engaged in risky sexual behaviour early, and therefore exposed to HIV/Aids and other sexually transmitted diseases. This could roll back many gains made in the fight against HIV/Aids over the years. 

What this further means, is that we are dealing with a deeper development challenge largely defined by poverty but manifested in our education and health outcomes. 

While some people quickly conclude that parents are not doing enough, are to blame and should be the held accountable, and some blame these children for bad behavior and not having ambition to stay in school, these are people trapped by poverty and these mothers are children who need protection too. Most of them, simply do not know better. 

For observers, it should be clear that these early pregnancies further demonstrate the failure of our child protection system. Despite having a robust legal and policy framework for child protection, this is an indictment on the duty bearers for child protection. It clearly means that our otherwise dynamic legal and policy framework, which is seen to reasonably provide for a fair environment for child protection as well as interventions for protecting children, have largely failed. From the Children’s Act to the national strategy on ending child marriage and teenage pregnancy, these have all suffered the fate of ineffective implementation. 

As such, our approach to dealing with these problems require a multifaceted approach. Ofcourse, advocating for girls to stay in school is a great start and sure way to minimize the number of teenage pregnancies and early as well as forced marriages. But what schools do they have?

What is much needed is for a never ending stream of activities that keep these issues in our radar, involving parents and guardians, relatives and clan leaders, cultural leaders, religious leaders and other social actors. 

It is appreciable that the West Nile study identifies the many ways these different actors can contribute to addressing the problem. For instance, the researcher highlights awareness creations, supporting children’s’ education, passing byelaws against child marriage, qualifying marriages through issuance of certificates, reporting cases of defilement and child marriage, and referrals. 

The silver lining in all this is that we are allowing data to speak to us, and we are making commitments. We have to keep searching for evidence of what works for girls’ education in different contexts. 

Given the role of social traditional norms and culture in general, which varies across communities, it is important that the search for evidence and evolution of solutions takes the approach that Plan International has taken in West Nile, community by community.

The conference in Nebbi was a worthwhile conversation because it was sober.

Ms Maractho (PhD) is the director of Africa Policy Centre and senior lecturer at Uganda Christian University.