Knowledge Brief Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice BASIC PROFILE OF CHILD MARRIAGE IN MAURITANIA Chata Malé and Quentin Wodon March 2016 Child Marriage Series with Education Global Practice KEY MESSAGES:  Measures of child marriage are high in Mauritania. The share of women ages 18-22 who married as children is 35.2 percent, but it has declined over time. The share of girls marrying very early, before the age of 15, has also declined.  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 Mauritania. The brief is part of a series of standardized How is the question answered? Measures and a profile of briefs on this topic for several countries. child marriage inspired by the literature on poverty are provided. Page 1 HNPGP Knowledge Brief  A third of women in Mauritania still marry early. education attainment. This will not only limit her employment and earnings potential for the rest of her life, The analysis is based on data from the 2000-01 but it will also have other negative consequences for her Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) for Mauritania. as well as for her children. This is the latest DHS with unit data publicly available. While the data are now somewhat dated, they still provide Most studies on child marriage report the incidence of valuable insights. Table 1 provides basic statistics on the child marriage - the share of girls who marry early (before 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 differences in the likelihood of marrying as marriage gap, and the squared child marriage gap. children between the two groups. This suggests that child Definitions of these measures is provided in the annex. marriage may have decreased over time, as discussed The measures are estimated for child marriage as well as 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 50.7 20.9 who marry early, but also the mean number of years of 18 or Above 14.1 30.4 early marriage. When using the child marriage gap for the Below 12 5.0 9.8 evaluation of programs or policies, instead of simply 12 3.2 5.6 looking at the share of the girls who marry early, more 13 4.5 5.5 14 6.0 6.9 weight is placed on the girls who marry at a very young 15 5.1 9.0 age. While the child marriage gap takes into account the 16 5.1 6.2 average number of years of early marriage for girls who 17 6.4 5.7 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 15.6 16.8 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 Mauritania in 2000-01 the poverty literature help in capturing better how early was lower than that observed 25 years ago. There has girls marry (see the annex). The headcount (H) measures been a reduction in how early girls marry. the share of girls who marry early. The child marriage gap (CMG) measures the “depth” of the practice, taking into Child marriage has been reduced over time. account how early girls marry. The squared gap (SG) puts even more weight on the girls who marry very early. Table 2 provides trends over time in the measures of child marriage inspired by the poverty literature. Consider first Beyond the share of girls who marry early, other the age group 18-22. In that age group more than one measures of child marriage are also important. third of girls marry before the age of 18 (35.2 percent for the 18-22 age group). The child marriage gap (CMG) is at The negative impact of child marriage for a girl’s health, 7.5 percent and the squared gap (SG) at 2.1 percent for education, and well-being is often larger when the girl that group. By estimating the same measures on older marries very early. For example, child marriage is known groups, the table provides the trend in child marriage over to have a negative impact on school enrollment and time. When considering the 18 years threshold, there has attainment. The earlier a girl marries, the more likely it is been a sharp decline in the headcount, and a decline (in that she will drop out early and thereby have a low level of proportional terms) in other measures, suggesting that girls tend to marry slightly less early when they marry as 1 children. Nevertheless, the incidence is still high. Child marriage measures must be estimated on the population older than 18, because some younger girls not yet married in the survey could still get married by age 18. It is best to measure The fact that girls who marry early may marry less early is child marriage as early as possible after the age of 18 to provide confirmed by the measures based on the 15 years age data on conditions as current as possible, which is why the age threshold which suggest a decline in the headcount for bracket 18-22 is used here. Page 2 HNPGP Knowledge Brief  those measures. Still, overall, the share of girls marrying quintile after marriage may not be that different from the as children has decreased by 25 percentage points over quintile before. Also, for younger women, assets and the last 25 years (the approximate time gap between the wealth may be lower than for older women. In Mauritania, first and last age group), and the decline for extreme child the measures of child marriage differ by quintile, but it is marriage (15 years threshold) is limited at 19 percentage only in the top two quintiles of wealth that child marriage points2. is much less prevalent. Table 2: Trend in Child and Very Early Marriage (%) Table 4: Child Marriage by Quintile, Age 18-22 (%) 18 years 15 years 18 years 15 years H CMG SG H CMG SG H CMG SG H CMG SG All 18-49 years 48.7 11.6 3.5 27.8 5.3 1.3 All 18-22 years 35.2 7.5 2.1 18.7 3.1 0.7 Age group Wealth quintiles 18-22 years 35.2 7.5 2.1 18.7 3.1 0.7 Poorest 42.6 9.4 2.7 24.5 4.0 0.9 23-30 years 45.0 10.5 3.1 25.6 4.7 1.1 Poorer 45.1 9.4 2.6 23.9 4.0 0.8 31-40 years 59.6 14.5 4.4 33.8 6.8 1.7 Middle 35.6 7.6 2.2 18.1 3.2 0.8 41-49 years 60.1 15.9 5.1 37.7 8.0 2.0 Richer 28.7 5.9 1.5 14.3 2.3 0.5 Source: Authors’ estimation. Richest 15.6 3.2 0.9 7.3 1.3 0.3 Source: Authors’ estimation. Girls are more likely to marry early if they live in rural areas and are from poorer socio-economic groups. Child marriage is associated with lower education attainment and a lower likelihood of literacy. Child marriage is more prevalent in rural than in urban areas. There are also differences between regions, with Table 5 provides data on child marriage by level of the lowest measures observed in the Center zone and the education of the women, as well as literacy. Child highest measures observed (according to the headcount marriage affects education attainment negatively, index for the 18 years threshold) in the Rive and South because girls often drop out of school when they marry. zones, followed by Nouakchott. Child marriage is less The causality goes the other way as well, as the ability to prevalent in the North zone. The ranking of the regions in pursue one’s education may help delay the age at terms of the measures obtained with the 15 and 18 years marriage. This relationship between education and child thresholds tends to be similar. marriage is apparent in the data, in that the measures of child marriage tend to be higher among women with lower Rural girls are much more likely to marry early than urban levels of education. The same relationship is observed girls. Girls from the bottom four quintiles of wealth are when considering literacy where three categories are much more likely to marry than girls from the top quintile. 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 (%) The relationship between child marriage and schooling is 18 years 15 years H CMG SG H CMG SG important for policy as the causality goes both ways. Child All 18-22 years 35.2 7.5 2.1 18.7 3.1 0.7 marriage may lead to dropouts and lower education Region attainment. But the reverse is true as well: keeping girls in Nouakchott 29.2 6.4 1.9 15.4 2.8 0.7 school is often one of the best ways to delay marriage. South zone (g1) 35.6 7.1 1.9 17.1 2.6 0.5 Rive zone (g2) 43.8 9.3 2.6 24.4 4.0 0.8 Marrying between the ages of 15 and 17 tends to affect North zone (g3) 28.9 5.9 1.6 14.2 2.4 0.5 Center zone (g4) 28.7 6.6 1.9 16.2 3.0 0.7 primarily secondary education enrollment or completion, Residence and may not necessarily affect the completion of primary Urban 29.2 6.5 1.8 15.4 2.8 0.6 education. But marrying even earlier can also prevent Rural 40.6 8.4 2.3 21.6 3.4 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 H CMG SG H CMG SG Mauritania. Measures of child marriage are high. The All 18-22 years 35.2 7.5 2.1 18.7 3.1 0.7 share of women ages 18-22 who married as children is Education 35.2 percent, but it has declined substantially over time. No education 49.6 10.7 3.0 30.0 4.6 0.9 The share of girls marrying very early, before the age of Coranic 39.6 9.1 2.6 23.9 4.0 0.9 15, has also declined. Child marriage is associated with Primary,some 39.5 8.3 2.3 19.2 3.4 0.8 lower wealth, lower education levels, and higher labor Primary, compl. 29.3 6.4 1.9 14.4 2.9 0.7 Secondary, some 10.9 1.9 0.4 3.9 0.5 0.1 force participation. These are however only correlations, Secondary,compl. 21.1 2.9 0.6 1.5 0.5 0.1 not necessarily causal effects. Other briefs in this series Higher 23.4 3.3 0.5 - - - look at potential causal effects. Literacy Cannot read 45.0 9.7 2.8 25.4 4.2 0.9 References Full sentence 18.4 3.6 1.0 7.3 1.4 0.3 Limited ability 42.8 9.4 2.6 23.6 3.9 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 Mauritania, 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. But the type of work associated most with child depends on a parameter α which takes a value of zero for the marriage is work without cash earnings, which may be headcount, one for the child marriage gap, and two for the squared child marriage gap in the following expression: work with low productivity. These basic statistics however  1 q  z  yi   z  do not imply causality. P  Table 6: Child Marriage by Labor Force Participation n i1   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 All 18-22 years 35.2 7.5 2.1 18.7 3.1 0.7 on Women (ICRW) and the World Bank, which is supported by the Bill & Working Melinda Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF). More details on the research can be found at the No 33.1 6.9 1.9 16.5 2.9 0.6 project’s website: www.costsofchildmarriage.org. Partial funding for the Yes 41.5 9.2 2.6 25.2 3.9 0.8 work related to child marriage and education, labor force participation, Earns cash for work earnings, and program responses has been provided by the Global No 44.9 10.4 3.0 31.1 4.7 0.9 Partnership for Education. Comments from Jeff Edmeades and Yes 40.8 8.9 2.5 23.5 3.7 0.8 Margareta Norris Harrit are gratefully acknowledged. The opinions Source: Authors’ estimation. 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 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