1. Addressing the needs of young married & unmarried adolescents in rural settings
Tekle-Ab Mekbib, Population Council, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Presentation made at:
Early Intervention for Effective Prevention: Timing is Everything! A Consultative Meeting on Appropriate and Targeted Policies and Programs for year olds in Ethiopia
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Desalegn Hotel, Addis Ababa

2. Background
A further analysis of EDHS 2000 by the Population Council revealed that:
In Ethiopia, 18% of adolescent girls aged live with no parent
17% of rural girls are enrolled in school
86% of adolescents aged live in rural areas
50% of Amhara girls get married before they reach age 15

3. Youth Programs The most popular youth programs in Ethiopia are:
School based programs (Family life education, clubs, etc.)
Youth centers
Youth-friendly services
Peer-education

4. Youth Programs Cont’d
Typically, youth programs assume that many adolescents are having premarital sex
Focus on premarital pregnancy and school girl drop-out
Efforts concentrate on educating on the dangers of premarital sex and modes of HIV transmission
Do these efforts take into account local patterns of adolescent sexual activity in particular areas of Ethiopia?

5. Diagnostic Studies Who are targets of youth programs? A study
conducted by the Population Council in 2003
13 Youth Organizations took part in this exercise
Critical gaps in their services were identified
Majority of beneficiaries were boys (58%), and in school (78%)
Girls married and unmarried had limited participation
22% of beneficiaries were aged 10-14
All programs were urban based
HIV information included 69% of the contacts, while information on condoms was only 20%

6. Diagnostic Studies Cont’d
Suggested programmatic recommendations:
Out-of-school & vulnerable groups were neglected by programs & required rethinking to modify programs
Programs were urban based, while majority of young people live in rural areas, & a paradigm shift to address the needs of these groups is needed
Adolescent girls were neglected by progams, designing innovative approaches to reach these vulnerable youth was timely

7. Diagnostic Studies Cont’d
In 2003, PC was requested by the Ministry of Youth & Sports to conduct a study
The objective was to understand the diversity of adolescent lives in rural areas
Relevant programmatic recommendations for programming were put forward
In the study, two districts in West Gojam Zone were selected
In-depth interviews followed by a large scale survey of over 1800 adolescents aged were conducted
A range of topics were covered in the questionnaire (education, time use, migration, RH knowledge and pracitce, marriage, pregnancy & childbirth, sexual activity, etc.)

8. Most girls do not know what is happening to them…
Percent of girls who knew about and consented to marriage, by age at marriage
Married <10
Married 10 to 15
Married age 16+
All married girls
Knew spouse
2.8
4.5
12.9
5.5
Knew about marriage
5.6
17.3
25.8
15.3
Consented to marriage
6.9
20.5
48.4
19.6
Wanted to get married
16.0
41.9
14.9

9. Sexual initiation was most often unwanted and traumatic
69 percent of girls had first sex before first menstruation
Percentage of girls whose sexual initiation was unwanted and forced,
by age at marriage
Married <10
Married 10 to 15
Married age 16+
All married girls
Did not want to have sex when they did
92.3
82.4
66.7
82.0
Were forced against their will to have sex
89.7
83.8
60.0
81.4

10. Programming for the most vulnerable adolescent girls
Principles
Broad social change; not individual behavior change
Change a generation of girls by mobilizing them and building social assets
Berhane Hewan Project
“Berhane Hewan” (Amharic for ‘Light for Eve’) in
rural Amhara to mobilize and support girls at risk
of early marriage or girls who are already married

11. BERHANE HEWAN
Technical support is provided by the Population Council
Project targets over 600 unmarried & married adolescent girls (10-19 yrs)
Project is located in Yilmanadinsa woreda (Mosebo KA) of west Gojam zone

12. Project Objectives
Objective 1: Reduce the practice of early marriage among year olds
Objective 2: Increase proportion of married girls’ RH information and service utilization

13. Key Strategies focusing on Unmarried adolescent girls
1)Promoting functional literacy, life skills, livelihood skills & RH education through girls’ clubs led by adult female mentors
2) Supporting social networks of adolescent girls through mentors that impart life skills, information on RH and legal issues;
3) Livelihood component to address community needs e.g. water points, vegetable gardening, improved stove, and
4) Community Conversations to gain family and community support

14. Implementation Process
Nearly 2 years of implementation in 1 KA yielding in enrolment of 647girls, 77% of whom are unmarried girls.
Rapid assessment indicated that girls are happy to attend school & parents supportive
Parents are also supportive of livelihood skills
Currently, an end-line survey is completed to measure the impact of this intervention

15. Other Programs Under the PEPFAR Program, the Population Council is:
Working in West Gojam and North Gondar to delay child marriage and in the prevention of HIV infection
The EOC, EMDA and the Ministry of Youth & Sports are key partners in this program
Currently, the expansion of this activity is including urban areas