Knowledge Brief Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice BASIC PROFILE OF CHILD MARRIAGE IN MALI Chata Malé and Quentin Wodon March 2016 Child Marriage Series with Education Global Practice KEY MESSAGES:  Measures of child marriage are very high in Mali. The share of women ages 18-22 who married as children is 59.9 percent and it has increased over time. The share of girls marrying very early, before the age of 15, has also increased.  Child marriage is associated with lower wealth, lower education levels, and higher labor force participation. These are however only correlations, not necessarily causal effects. In order to design programs and policies to reduce child Box 1: Brief and Series Primer marriage, information is needed on the trend in the How is child marriage defined? Child marriage is defined as a practice over time, where it is most prevalent in a country, marriage or union taking place before the age of 18. and what the characteristics of girls marrying early are. Why a series on child marriage? Child marriage has Measuring child marriage is needed to inform policy. significant negative impacts – not only for girls, but also for a range of development outcomes. Demonstrating these impacts Child marriage is recognized as a major development will assist governments and others to make the case for intervening to reduce the practice. issue that affects girls in many developing countries. The practice has been linked to a number of health risks, What are the topics discussed in the series? The series higher fertility, and lower education attainment, among looks at the impacts of child marriage on health, population, others. The negative impact of child marriage on a wide education, employment, agency, and violence, among other range of development outcomes explains why in many outcomes. The welfare, budget, and non-monetary costs of child countries child marriage is now prohibited by law, and marriage are estimated. Legal/institutional aspects and options why the elimination of child marriage is part of the new to reduce the practice are also discussed. Sustainable Development Goals. Yet more is needed to eliminate the practice than adopting laws. In order to What is the question asked in this brief? The question is: How widespread is the practice, not only in terms of the share of inform program and policies to reduce the practice, this girls marrying early, but also in terms of how early they marry? brief provides a basic profile of child marriage in Mali. The brief is part of a series of standardized briefs on this topic How is the question answered? Measures and a profile of for several countries. child marriage inspired by the literature on poverty are provided. Page 1 HNPGP Knowledge Brief  Six in ten women in Mali still marry early. but it will also have other negative consequences for her as well as for her children. The analysis is based on data from the 2012-13 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) for Mali. This is Most studies on child marriage report the incidence of the latest DHS available. Table 1 provides basic statistics child marriage - the share of girls who marry early (before on the age at first marriage for women. Two samples are 18), sometimes also with the share of girls who marry considered: women ages 18 to 22, which is the youngest very early, before age 15. Such statistics are useful, but age group that can be used to measure child marriage in they do not capture the “depth” and “severity” of the the country1, and women ages 18-49 (the women’s practice very well. Better measures of child marriage can questionnaire in the DHS collects data for women up to be adopted from the poverty literature (Ngyuen and age 49). Clearly, a large share of women marry below the Wodon (2012). Three measures are used here: the age of 18, and many do so before the age of 15, but there incidence of child marriage or headcount index, the child are some in the likelihood of marrying as children marriage gap, and the squared child marriage gap. between the two groups. This suggests that child Definitions of these measures is provided in the annex. marriage may actually have increased over time. The measures are estimated for child marriage as well as very early marriage defined as marrying before age 15. Table 1: Age at First Marriage for Women (%) 18-22 years 18-49 years The child marriage gap represents the “depth” of child Not Married 22.6 6.8 marriage. It takes into account not only the share of girls 18 or Above 17.5 40.5 who marry early, but also the mean number of years of Below 12 3.4 3.3 early marriage. When using the child marriage gap for the 12 4.0 3.7 evaluation of programs or policies, instead of simply 13 6.5 5.7 14 9.4 8.3 looking at the share of the girls who marry early, more 15 13.6 11.4 weight is placed on the girls who marry at a very young 16 12.6 10.8 age. While the child marriage gap takes into account the 17 10.4 9.6 average number of years of early marriage for girls who Total 100.0 100.0 marry early, the squared gap takes into account the Mean age at first marriage 15.6 17.6 square of that number, thereby putting even more Source: Authors’ estimation. emphasis on girls who marry very early and taking into account inequality in the age of marriage among girls The consequences of child marriage are not the same marrying early. whether girls marry at 12 or 17. Measures inspired from the poverty literature help in capturing better how early The incidence of child marriage in Mali in 2012-13 was girls marry (see the annex). The headcount (H) measures higher than that observed 25 years ago. There has been the share of girls who marry early. The child marriage gap an increase in how early girls marry. (CMG) measures the “depth” of the practice, taking into account how early girls marry. The squared gap (SG) puts Child marriage has increased over time. even more weight on the girls who marry very early. Table 2 provides trends over time in the measures of child Beyond the share of girls who marry early, other marriage inspired by the poverty literature. Consider first measures of child marriage are also important. the age group 18-22. In that age group, six in ten girls marry before the age of 18 (59.9 percent for the 18-22 The negative impact of child marriage for a girl’s health, age group). The child marriage gap (CMG) is at 10.9 education, and well-being is often larger when the girl percent and the squared gap (SG) at 2.6 percent for that marries very early. For example, child marriage is known group. By estimating the same measures on older groups, to have a negative impact on school enrollment and the table provides the trend in child marriage over time. attainment. The earlier a girl marries, the more likely it is When considering the 18 years threshold, there has been that she will drop out early and thereby have a low level of an increase in the headcount, at least comparing the education attainment. This will not only limit her youngest and oldest age group, and an increase in other employment and earnings potential for the rest of her life, measures as well, suggesting that some girls tend to marry earlier when they marry as children. 1 The fact that girls who marry early may marry earlier is Child marriage measures must be estimated on the population older than 18, because some younger girls not yet married in the confirmed by the measures based on the 15 years age survey could still get married by age 18. It is best to measure threshold which suggest an increase in the headcount for child marriage as early as possible after the age of 18 to provide those measures. Overall, the share of girls marrying as data on conditions as current as possible, which is why the age children has increased by 17 percentage points over the bracket 18-22 is used here. Page 2 HNPGP Knowledge Brief  last 25 years (the approximate time gap between the first quintile after marriage may not be that different from the and last age group), and the increase for extreme child quintile before. Also, for younger women, assets and marriage (15 years threshold), is six percentage points 2. wealth may be lower than for older women. In Mali, the These are somewhat surprising as well as worrying measures of child marriage differ much by quintile. It is findings in comparison to trends in other countries. only in the top quintile of wealth that child marriage is much less prevalent. Table 2: Trend in Child and Very Early Marriage (%) 18 years 15 years Table 4: Child Marriage by Quintile, Age 18-22 (%) H CMG SG H CMG SG 18 years 15 years All 18-49 years 52.7 9.6 2.3 20.9 3.0 0.6 level H CMG SG H CMG SG Age group All 59.9 10.9 2.6 23.3 3.3 0.6 18-22 years 59.9 10.9 2.6 23.3 3.3 0.6 Wealth quintiles 23-30 years 56.3 10.3 2.5 23.2 3.3 0.6 Poorest 74.9 14.0 3.3 30.7 4.4 0.8 31-40 years 46.9 8.4 2.0 17.7 2.5 0.5 Poorer 68.7 12.5 2.8 27.8 3.5 0.6 41-49 years 42.8 8.1 2.0 17.4 2.6 0.5 Middle 72.4 14.1 3.6 31.2 4.9 1.0 Source: Authors’ estimation. Richer 57.7 10.3 2.4 21.9 3.1 0.6 Richest 36.8 6.0 1.3 10.9 1.5 0.3 Girls are more likely to marry early if they live in rural Source: Authors’ estimation. areas and are from poorer socio-economic groups. Child marriage is associated with lower education Child marriage is more prevalent in rural than in urban attainment and a lower likelihood of literacy. areas. There are also differences between regions, with the lowest measures observed in Bamako and the highest Table 5 provides data on child marriage by level of measures observed (according to the headcount index for education of the women, as well as literacy. Child the 18 years threshold) in Kayes and Sikasso, followed by marriage affects education attainment negatively, Koulikoro, Segou, and Mopti. Child marriage is less because girls often drop out of school when they marry. prevalent in urban area. The ranking of the regions in The causality goes the other way as well, as the ability to terms of the measures obtained with the 15 and 18 years pursue one’s education may help delay the age at thresholds tends to be similar. marriage. This relationship between education and child marriage is apparent in the data, in that the measures of Rural girls are much more likely to marry early than urban child marriage tend to be higher among women with lower girls. Girls from the bottom four quintiles of wealth are levels of education. The same relationship is observed much more likely to marry than girls from the top quintile. when considering literacy where three categories are considered: the woman cannot read at all, can read part of a sentence, or can read a full sentence. Table 3: Child Marriage by Location, Age 18-22 (%) 18 years 15 years level H CMG SG H CMG SG The relationship between child marriage and schooling is All 18-22 years 59.9 10.9 2.6 23.3 3.3 0.6 important for policy as the causality goes both ways. Child Region marriage may lead to dropouts and lower education Kayes 74.5 13.6 3.2 29.7 4.1 0.8 attainment. But the reverse is true as well: keeping girls in Koulikoro 60.9 11.0 2.5 23.2 3.0 0.5 school is often one of the best ways to delay marriage. Sikasso 63.5 11.2 2.7 24.1 3.5 0.7 Segou 61.5 11.6 2.8 25.1 3.8 0.7 Mopti 60.1 11.2 2.6 23.7 3.3 0.6 Marrying between the ages of 15 and 17 tends to affect Bamako 38.0 6.8 1.6 14.2 2.2 0.4 primarily secondary education enrollment or completion, Residence and may not necessarily affect the completion of primary Urban 40.2 6.8 1.5 14.2 1.9 0.3 education. But marrying even earlier can also prevent Rural 67.5 12.5 3.0 26.8 3.8 0.7 girls from completing their primary education (primary Source: Authors’ estimation. school takes in principle six years to complete, but some students start primary school late and may also repeat Household welfare is measured through a wealth index grades, so the actual age of completion may be delayed). with households categorized in five quintiles from poorest to richest. For most women the level of wealth observed is that of the household in which they married, not their household or origin, but it is likely that many women marry with men who have similar socio-economic profiles, so the 2 These measures have standard errors (not shown to save space). Some differences may not be statistically significant. Page 3 HNPGP Knowledge Brief  Table 5: Child Marriage by Education Level and Conclusion Literacy Status, Age 18-22 (%) 18 years 15 years This brief has provided a basic profile of child marriage in level H CMG SG H CMG SG Mali. Measures of child marriage are very high. The share All 18-22 years 59.9 10.9 2.6 23.3 3.3 0.6 of women ages 18-22 who married as children is 59.9 Education percent and it has increased substantially over time. The No education 72.3 13.5 3.3 30.6 4.3 0.8 share of girls marrying very early, before the age of 15, Primary, some 57.9 9.5 2.0 14.9 2.2 0.4 has also increased. Child marriage is associated with Primary, compl. 64.5 11.0 2.4 22.2 2.9 0.5 lower wealth, lower education levels, and higher labor Secondary, some 30.1 4.9 1.1 8.7 1.3 0.2 Secondary, compl. 32.6 3.7 0.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 force participation. These are however only correlations, Higher 5.7 0.9 0.1 0.8 0.1 0.0 not necessarily causal effects. Other briefs in this series Literacy look at potential causal effects. Cannot read 71.0 13.2 3.1 28.9 4.1 0.8 Limited ability 64.3 11.5 2.6 24.5 3.4 0.6 References Full sentence 29.5 4.8 1.0 8.4 1.2 0.2 Source: Authors’ estimation. Foster, J., J. Greer, and E. Thorbecke, 1984, A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures, Econometrica 52: 761–776. Relationships between child marriage and labor force participation can be complex and depend on context. Nguyen, M. C., and Q. Wodon, 2012, Measuring Child Marriage, Economics Bulletin 32(1): 398-411. Table 6 provides data on labor force participation. In Annex: Methodological Note some countries child marriage may reduce labor force participation through higher fertility. In others, if child The headcount index, child marriage gap, and squared child marriage is associated with poverty, women may leave marriage gap are the first three measures of the so-called FGT little choice but to work. Other effects could be at work, so class (Foster et al., 2014). Denote by q the number of girls who that the relationship between child marriage and labor marry early and by n the number of girls in the overall force participation is complex. In Mali, child marriage population. Denote by yi the age of marriage of girl i and by z measures are lower for women not working, suggesting a the age threshold defining child marriage (18 years of age, but a positive association between child marriage and work. In lower age threshold can also be used to measure extreme child addition, the type of work associated most with child marriage). The general formula for the FGT class of measures marriage is work without cash earnings, which may be depends on a parameter α which takes a value of zero for the headcount, one for the child marriage gap, and two for the work with low productivity. These basic statistics however squared child marriage gap in the following expression: do not imply causality.  1 q  z  yi  Table 6: Child Marriage by Labor Force Participation P   z  n i1   Status, Age 18-22 (%) 18 years 15 years level H CMG SG H CMG SG This brief was produced as part of the Economic Impacts of Child All 18-22 years 59.9 10.9 2.6 23.3 3.3 0.6 Marriage study, a joint project of the International Center for Research Working on Women (ICRW) and the World Bank, which is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund No 58.6 10.8 2.6 23.0 3.4 0.7 Foundation (CIFF). More details on the research can be found at the Yes 61.9 11.1 2.5 23.9 3.2 0.6 project’s website: www.costsofchildmarriage.org. Partial funding for the Type of work work related to child marriage and education, labor force participation, Not paid 61.5 11.4 2.7 26.4 3.5 0.6 earnings, and program responses has been provided by the Global Cash only 58.4 9.8 2.1 19.2 2.4 0.4 Partnership for Education. Comments from Jeff Edmeades and Cash and in-kind 77.2 14.4 3.6 30.1 4.9 1.0 Margareta Norris Harrit are gratefully acknowledged. The opinions In-kind only 71.8 18.9 5.4 59.3 8.5 1.6 expressed in this brief are those of the authors only and need not reflect Source: Authors’ estimation. the views of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, of the countries they represent. The Health, Nutrition and Population Knowledge Briefs of the World Bank are a quick reference on the essentials of specific HNP-related topics summarizing new findings and information. These may highlight an issue and key interventions proven to be effective in improving health, or disseminate new findings and lessons learned from the regions. For more information on this topic, go to: www.worldbank.org/health. Page 4