RIATT-ESA and all its members welcome the Global Alliance because it is widely recognized that the global HIV response is failing to meet the needs of children
Beyond the ratifications of international and regional child rights instruments, as well as promulgation of impeccable laws, realization of children’s rights will not be actualized until adequate public resources are availed.
"Every year, an estimated 15 million girls aged under 18 are married worldwide with little or no say in the matter." Child marriage as a social construct, ruptures childhood and exposes young married girls to early sexuality, pregnancy and childbearing, and has severe health and social consequences generally denying girls their rights.
This research VSO investigated the extent and factors that cause child marriages in three countries: Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
The research explores the impact of child marriage, the causes of child marriage, the legal framework age of marriage and the countries responses to reduce child marriage.
Key recommendations include:
Click here to download the full research.
This check-list is a tool for Girls Not Brides members and National Partnerships, as well as UN and government stakeholders, who are either in the early stages of developing a policy or strategy to address child marriage in their countries or reflecting on an existing national strategy and how to maximise its impact. It provides a framework for analysing the process of developing national strategies, provides suggestions for what content might be included in these strategies, and highlights questions to consider for how they could be implemented.
RIATT-ESA and the Coalition urges its partners in civil society to push for the following 5 targets and issues in their advocacy with UN country missions, or in engagement with regional or national entities who are themselves involved in such advocacy around the High-Level Meeting (HLM) on Ending AIDS.
Research by: L. Sherr, I.S. Hensels, S. Skeen, M. Tomlinson, K.J. Roberts, and A. Macedo.
Methods: This study assessed child violence experiences (harsh punishment and exposure to domestic or community violence) and school enrolment, progress and attendance in children attending community-based organisations in South Africa and Malawi (n=989) at baseline and at 15 months’ follow-up, examining differential experience of HIV positive, HIV affected and HIV unaffected children.
Discussion: This data revealed some important findings.
First, there are high rates of violence exposure in this population. A report on the use of corporal punishment in LMICs found that corporal punishment was very prevalent in several sub-Saharan African countries, with more than 80% of children in the region reporting being beaten at home. In both Malawi and South Africa there are also high rates of community and domestic violence. In South Africa, rates of perpetration of physical violence against a partner are as high as 40%, while in Malawi 28.5% of women report being exposed to abuse by their partners. Children in these countries are also witnesses to violence; in South Africa, 45% of children have witnessed their mother being beaten.
Second, this research found that this exposure to violence has an impact on education outcomes. Specifically, we found an impact of harsh punishment on school enrolment and performance. Research into children being out of school in South Africa has identified costs of transport, child labour in the home or elsewhere, illness, disability and poor school performance as drivers of dropout. In Malawi, reasons for non-enrolment include long distances to school and poor quality of available schooling and infrastructure. And violence againt girls was also noted as having a negative impact on girls attending and perfoming well in school.
Finally, the findings also highlight that children who are HIV positive in particular appear to be most at risk of poor educational outcomes in the context of high exposure to violence. This is likely to be due to a range of inter-related risk factors that affect educational outcomes. We know that many of the risk factors for violence against children are prevalent in families and communities affected by HIV/AIDS. Children who are HIV positive have been shown to perform more poorly than their peers on a range of cognitive tests and are also more likely to have mental health problems. Further, other factors such as parental death, shifting care arrangements, change in school, illness-induced poverty and increased caregiving responsibilities might affect a child’s ability to access schooling and perform well in the context of HIV.
Conclusion: Violence experiences were associated with a number of educational outcomes, which may have long-term consequences. Community-based organisations may be well placed to address such violence, with a particular emphasis on the challenges faced by children who are HIV positive
A study by Leandri Pretorius*, Andrew Gibbs, Tamaryn Crankshaw and Samantha Willan, sought to understand the scope and impact of interventions targeting young people (ages 10- 24) living with HIV (YPLWH) to improve SRH-related outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
This study found that there have been a limited number of interventions to improve SRHR outcomes of YPLWH in the region.
In addition, the findings reflect that more detailed information regarding description of interventions, such as session content, sex and age, and delivery method, need
to be provided so that others can more easily understand embedded theories of change and how interventions work. There also exists a need for broader, more inclusive interventions aimed at YPLWH that address structural and contextual issues, specifically gender equality and livelihoods strengthening, recognising how these are major determinants of realising SRHR for young people. More widely, understandings of SRHR remain narrow with limited engagement around sexuality and sexual identity. Only through articulating a comprehensive approach to improving SRHR that recognises the multiple underlying determinants, is it likely that the SRHR of YPLWH in SSA can be improved.
Effective social protection is vital to reducing the disadvantages and inequalities that make people vulnerable to HIV infection, enabling PLHIV to live healthily and profit from treatment, and mitigating the impact of HIV and AIDS on households.
Click here to read the study report and the fact sheet on Access to Social Protection by PLHIV and Key Groups in Ethiopia, conducted by IDS.
