It is clear from research and on the ground evidence in disaster-affected communities around the world that there is a significant increase in early marriages during and after disasters. And noting that there are now four times more weather related disasters than in the 1970s, this trend cannot be ignored. Looking at the recent post-disaster context in Mozambique following the devastating cyclones Idai and Kenneth. Humanitarian Advisors has explored the pre-existing drivers for child marriage and how these interacted with the post-cyclone emergency context in Mozambique. Whilst most people manage to recover within a short to medium period after a disaster, girls who are forced to marry in an emergency context are likely to suffer the consequences for the rest of their lives.
In Mozambique, nearly 50 percent of girls marry before 18 years of age. And nearly 15 percent of girls are married before the age of 15. Mozambique is ninth on the list of countries with the highest prevalence of child marriage. The combination of a high prevalence of child marriage with extreme vulnerability to natural disasters and climate change makes Mozambique a high-risk country for girls.
According to the World Bank in their 2017 report ‘Economic Impacts of Child Marriage: Global Synthesis Report’: gains in earnings and productivity that would have been observed today if women had not married early for a core set of 15 countries (including Mozambique) are estimated at $26 billion. In September 2019, the director of Girl Child Rights, Chimoio, said,
“Our Activists are reporting increased school drop out of many girls due to early and forced child marriage. The cases of early marriage are especially dire in the more remote communities. In 12 villages of Mossurize district more than 124 girls have been forced in marriage since the aftermath of Cyclone Idai. This is just the tip of an iceberg.”
When it comes to Mozambique, some evidence already exists linking disasters and child marriage in Mozambique. CARE produced a report in 2019 titled ‘Hope dries up? Women and Girls coping with Drought and Climate Change in Mozambique’, which found that during the El Niño induced drought of 2016 in Mozambique in the context of food scarcity, poverty and economic insecurity “many families used child marriage as a coping mechanism to raise income (through payment of a bride price) or to reduce the number of dependents per household.” Regardless of the situation, every person should have equal opportunity to lead a safe, healthy, and productive life.
There are many and complex reasons child marriage occurs. Apart from representing an economic asset, marrying off a daughter also reduces the number of people that depend on the family budget for survival. This reason was cited several times as a driver of child marriage in the post-disaster context. Negative coping mechanisms plays an important role too. In the most desperate situations and in absence of any other resources, some girls find themselves forced to engage in transactional sex as a last recourse to raise an income. In these cases, families may prefer to marry their daughter off to avoid the stigma against sex outside of marriage.
Access to secondary schools is limited in many communities and during the cyclone recovery, many of the limited schools were forced to close down temporarily. In other cases, families did not have sufficient resources to pay for school materials or safe transport to the nearest school. In many cases girls were the first to drop out of school, which increases the risk of early marriage. Both the cost and distance between home and school is a factor that influences the ability of girls to continue studying. Particularly in remote communities, many girls struggle to finish primary school and the amount of girls in secondary school is low.
Another important determinant in early and forced marriage is how girls are seen and defined. In many communities, physical characteristics are believed to determine whether a girl is ready for marriage, instead of age and mental capacity. The development of female physical attributes and first menstruation are interpreted as strong signs of readiness for marriage.
Polygamy prevails in many communities and interlinks with child marriage. In some cases, girls younger than 18 are married to a wealthy man with one or several wives. The amount of women and children a man can claim is considered a status symbol and a contributor to economic wealth, since more family members are available to work on the agricultural land.
The absence of a legal framework that penalizes marriage under 18 years is a missed opportunity to discourage child marriage. Across Mozambique, a father is identified as the key-decision maker with the final say when it comes his daughter’s marriage. A new and draft Child Marriage bill could help to deter fathers from seeking to marry their daughters before the age of 18.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights states in the 2019 report ‘Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Humanitarian Settings’, that “Child, early and forced marriage is a human rights violation, a harmful practice and a form of gender-based violence. It has a higher incidence in humanitarian contexts, with terrible consequences for the human rights of victims, in particular women and girls.”
Humanitarian Advisors recommends:
- Invest in the education and empowerment of girls while engaging men, boys and women.
- Enable girls to return to school as quickly as possible following an acute crisis by investing in Education in Emergencies.
- Humanitarian actors should systematically implement mitigation strategies against child marriage following a disaster, and identify and engage champions against child marriage in communities for prevention and response.