Knowledge Brief Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice BASIC PROFILE OF CHILD MARRIAGE IN BURKINA FASO Chata Malé and Quentin Wodon March 2016 Child Marriage Series with Education Global Practice MESSAGES: KEY MESSAGES: KEY  Measures of child marriage are high in Burkina Faso. The share of women ages 18-22 who married as children is 49.8 percent and it has not decreased substantially over time. The share of girls marrying very early, before the age of 15, has increased slightly.  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 Burkina Faso. The brief is part of a series of standardized briefs How is the question answered? Measures and a profile of on this topic for several countries. child marriage inspired by the literature on poverty are provided. Page 1 HNPGP Knowledge Brief  Half of women in Burkina Faso 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 2010 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) for Burkina-Faso. Most studies on child marriage report the incidence of This is the latest DHS available. Table 1 provides basic child marriage - the share of girls who marry early (before statistics on the age at first marriage for women. Two 18), sometimes also with the share of girls who marry samples are considered: women ages 18 to 22, which is very early, before age 15. Such statistics are useful, but the youngest age group that can be used to measure they do not capture the “depth” and “severity” of the child marriage in the country1, and women ages 18-49 practice very well. Better measures of child marriage can (the women’s questionnaire in the DHS collects data for be adopted from the poverty literature (Ngyuen and women up to age 49). Clearly, a large share of women Wodon (2012). Three measures are used here: the marry below the age of 18, and many do so before the incidence of child marriage or headcount index, the child age of 15, but there are few differences in the likelihood of marriage gap, and the squared child marriage gap. marrying as children between the two groups. This Definitions of these measures is provided in the annex. suggests that child marriage may not have decreased The measures are estimated for child marriage as well as much over time, as will be confirmed below. very early marriage defined as marrying before age 15. Table 1: Age at First Marriage for Women (%) The child marriage gap represents the “depth” of child 18-22 years 18-49 years marriage. It takes into account not only the share of girls Not Married 28.3 8.6 who marry early, but also the mean number of years of 18 or Above 21.8 39.7 early marriage. When using the child marriage gap for the Below 12 0.3 0.4 evaluation of programs or policies, instead of simply 12 0.8 1.0 looking at the share of the girls who marry early, more 13 2.1 2.3 14 6.1 5.8 weight is placed on the girls who marry at a very young 15 10.5 11.3 age. While the child marriage gap takes into account the 16 13.0 13.9 average number of years of early marriage for girls who 17 17.2 17.1 marry early, the squared gap takes into account the Total 100.0 100.0 square of that number, thereby putting even more Mean age at first marriage 16.6 17.5 emphasis on girls who marry very early and taking into Source: Authors’ estimation. account inequality in the age of marriage among girls marrying early. The consequences of child marriage are not the same whether girls marry at 12 or 17. Measures inspired from The incidence of child marriage in Burkina-Faso in 2010 the poverty literature help in capturing better how early was only marginally lower than that observed 25 years girls marry (see the annex). The headcount (H) measures ago. There has been a reduction in how early girls marry, the share of girls who marry early. The child marriage gap but even that reduction has been fairly limited. (CMG) measures the “depth” of the practice, taking into account how early girls marry. The squared gap (SG) puts Child marriage has not been reduced 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, half of girls marry before the age of 18 (49.8 percent for the 18-22 age The negative impact of child marriage for a girl’s health, group). The child marriage gap (CMG) is at 6.4 percent education, and well-being is often larger when the girl and the squared gap (SG) at 1.1 percent for that group. marries very early. For example, child marriage is known By estimating the same measures on older groups, the to have a negative impact on school enrollment and table provides the trend in child marriage over time. When attainment. The earlier a girl marries, the more likely it is considering the 18 years threshold, there has been no that she will drop out early and thereby have a low level of substantial decline in the headcount. The share of girls education attainment. This will not only limit her marrying as children has decreased by only one employment and earnings potential for the rest of her life, percentage point over the last 25 years (the approximate time gap between the first and last age group), and for 1 extreme child marriage (15 years threshold), there has Child marriage measures must be estimated on the population older than 18, because some younger girls not yet married in the been a slight increase in incidence by one percentage survey could still get married by age 18. It is best to measure child marriage as early as possible after the age of 18 to provide data on conditions as current as possible, which is why the age bracket 18-22 is used here. Page 2 HNPGP Knowledge Brief  point 2 over the last two and a half decade. Essentially, Household welfare is measured through a wealth index child marriage has not changed much over that time with households categorized in five quintiles from poorest period. to richest. For most women the level of wealth observed is that of the household in which they married, not their Table 2: Trend in Child and Very Early Marriage (%) household or origin, but it is likely that many women marry 18 years 15 years with men who have similar socio-economic profiles, so the H CMG SG H CMG SG quintile after marriage may not be that different from the All 18-49 years 51.8 6.8 1.2 9.5 1.0 0.1 quintile before. Also, for younger women, assets and Age group wealth may be lower than for older women. In Burkina 18-22 years 49.8 6.4 1.1 9.3 0.9 0.1 Faso, the measures of child marriage differ by quintile, but 23-30 years 52.0 7.0 1.2 10.2 1.1 0.1 it is only in the top quintile of wealth that child marriage is 31-40 years 53.5 7.0 1.2 9.5 1.1 0.2 41-49 years 51.0 6.5 1.1 8.2 0.9 0.1 much less prevalent. Source: Authors’ estimation. Table 4: Child Marriage by Quintile, Age 18-22 (%) Girls are more likely to marry early if they live in rural 18 years 15 years areas and are from poorer socio-economic groups. H CMG SG H CMG SG All 49.8 6.4 1.1 9.3 0.9 0.1 Wealth quintiles Child marriage is more prevalent in rural than in urban Poorest 65.7 10.0 2.0 18.9 2.0 0.3 areas. There are also differences between regions, with Poorer 63.8 8.5 1.4 12.6 1.2 0.1 the lowest measures observed in the Center region and Middle 59.9 7.3 1.2 10.6 1.0 0.1 the highest measures observed (according to the Richer 52.9 6.3 1.0 6.9 0.7 0.1 headcount index for the 18 years threshold) in the Sahel Richest 25.5 3.0 0.5 3.3 0.4 - and East regions, followed by the North, North-Center, Source: Authors’ estimation. Values rounding to 0.0 not shown. Boucle de Mouhoun and East-Center regions. Child marriage is less prevalent in the Central Plateau region. Child marriage is associated with lower education The ranking of regions in terms of the measures obtained attainment and a lower likelihood of literacy. with the 15 and 18 years thresholds tends to be similar. Table 5 provides data on child marriage by level of Rural girls are twice more likely to marry early than urban education of the women, as well as literacy. Child girls. Girls from the bottom four quintiles of wealth are marriage affects education attainment negatively, much more likely to marry than girls from the top quintile. because girls often drop out of school when they marry. The causality goes the other way as well, as the ability to pursue one’s education may help delay the age at Table 3: Child Marriage by Location, Age 18-22 (%) marriage. This relationship between education and child 18 years 15 years marriage is apparent in the data, in that the measures of H CMG SG H CMG SG child marriage tend to be higher among women with lower All 18-22 years 49.8 6.4 1.1 9.3 0.9 0.1 levels of education. The same relationship is observed Region Boucle de Mouhoun 56.3 6.6 1.0 6.2 0.7 0.1 when considering literacy where three categories are Cascades 51.6 6.2 0.9 5.7 0.5 0.1 considered: the woman cannot read at all, can read part Center 24.9 2.7 0.4 2.7 0.3 0.1 of a sentence, or can read a full sentence. East-Center 54.7 5.8 0.8 4.5 0.4 - North-Center 59.6 5.9 0.8 4.5 0.3 - The relationship between child marriage and schooling is West-Center 40.8 4.8 0.7 5.6 0.5 0.1 important for policy as the causality goes both ways. Child South-Center 48.3 5.9 0.9 6.6 0.6 0.1 marriage may lead to dropouts and lower education East 72.9 10.2 1.8 16.8 1.7 0.2 Hauts Basins 41.4 5.9 1.1 10.9 1.0 0.1 attainment. But the reverse is true as well: keeping girls in North 60.4 7.4 1.2 9.6 0.8 0.1 school is often one of the best ways to delay marriage. Central Plateau 37.6 4.4 0.7 4.7 0.6 0.1 Sahel 77.9 14.5 3.1 34.5 3.7 0.5 Marrying between the ages of 15 and 17 tends to affect South-West 53.1 6.9 1.1 8.5 0.8 0.1 primarily secondary education enrollment or completion, Residence Urban 25.0 2.9 0.4 3.4 0.4 - and may not necessarily affect the completion of primary Rural 61.4 8.1 1.4 12.0 1.2 0.1 education. But marrying even earlier can also prevent Source: Authors’ estimation. Values rounding to 0.0 not shown. girls from completing their primary education (primary school takes in principle six years to complete, but some students start primary school late and may also repeat grades, so the actual age of completion may be delayed). 2 These measures have standard errors (not shown to save space). Some differences may not be statistically significant. Page 3 HNPGP Knowledge Brief  Conclusion Table 5: Child Marriage by Education Level and Literacy Status, Age 18-22 (%) This brief has provided a basic profile of child marriage in 18 years 15 years Burkina Faso. Measures of child marriage are high. The H CMG SG H CMG SG share of women ages 18-22 who married as children is All 18-22 years 49.8 6.4 1.1 9.3 0.9 0.1 49.8 percent and it has not declined substantially over Education time. The share of girls marrying very early, before the No education 62.3 8.3 1.4 12.7 1.3 0.2 age of 15, has also not changed much (it has increased Primary, some 40.0 4.7 0.7 4.7 0.4 - slightly versus 25 years ago). Child marriage is Primary, compl. 32.6 3.3 0.4 1.8 0.1 - associated with lower wealth, lower education levels, and Secondary, some 14.6 1.6 0.2 1.6 0.2 - higher labor force participation. These are however only Secondary, compl. - - - - - - Higher 36.0 3.7 0.5 - - - correlations, not necessarily causal effects. Other briefs in Literacy this series look at potential causal effects. Cannot read 60.4 7.9 1.4 11.6 1.1 0.1 Limited ability 36.9 4.3 0.6 5.1 0.3 - References Full sentence 19.0 2.0 0.3 1.6 0.2 - No card available 75.3 14.6 3.5 37.4 5.2 0.8 Foster, J., J. Greer, and E. Thorbecke, 1984, A Class of Source: Authors’ estimation. Values rounding to 0.0 not shown. Decomposable Poverty Measures, Econometrica 52: 761–776. Relationships between child marriage and labor force Nguyen, M. C., and Q. Wodon, 2012, Measuring Child Marriage, participation can be complex and depend on context. 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 The headcount index, child marriage gap, and squared child participation through higher fertility. In others, if child marriage gap are the first three measures of the so-called FGT marriage is associated with poverty, women may leave class (Foster et al., 2014). Denote by q the number of girls who little choice but to work. Other effects could be at work, so marry early and by n the number of girls in the overall that the relationship between child marriage and labor population. Denote by yi the age of marriage of girl i and by z force participation is complex. In Burkina Faso, child the age threshold defining child marriage (18 years of age, but a marriage measures are lower for women not working, lower age threshold can also be used to measure extreme child suggesting a positive association between child marriage marriage). The general formula for the FGT class of measures and work. In addition, the type of work associated most depends on a parameter α which takes a value of zero for the headcount, one for the child marriage gap, and two for the with child marriage is work without only cash earnings, squared child marriage gap in the following expression: which may be work with low productivity. These basic  1 q  z  yi   z  statistics however do not imply causality. P  n i1   Table 6: Child Marriage by Labor Force Participation Status, Age 18-22 (%) 18 years 15 years This brief was produced as part of the Economic Impacts of Child H CMG SG H CMG SG Marriage study, a joint project of the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and the World Bank, which is supported by the Bill & All 18-22 years 49.8 6.4 1.1 9.3 0.9 0.1 Melinda Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Working Foundation (CIFF). More details on the research can be found at the No 43.6 6.2 1.1 10.6 1.1 0.1 project’s website: www.costsofchildmarriage.org. Partial funding for the Yes 52.2 6.6 1.1 8.7 0.8 0.1 work related to child marriage and education, labor force participation, Type of work earnings, and program responses has been provided by the Global Not paid 52.3 6.5 1.1 8.4 0.8 0.1 Partnership for Education. Comments from Jeff Edmeades and Cash only 48.3 6.1 1.0 8.0 0.8 0.1 Margareta Norris Harrit are gratefully acknowledged. The opinions Cash and in-kind 61.6 9.0 1.7 16.0 1.6 0.2 expressed in this brief are those of the authors only and need not reflect the views of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, of the countries In-kind only 56.3 6.3 0.9 5.7 0.5 0.1 they represent. Source: Authors’ estimation. 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