1. Girls are not Brides: A case study on ending social norms on girl marriage in Northern Malawi
By: Mirriam Kaluwa

2. Presentation outline Introduction
Situation analysis – child and girl marriage in Malawi
Social Norms on girl marriage in Northern Region of Malawi
Implications
Strategies for ending girl marriage in Northern Malawi

3. Introduction Malawi has a population of 14.4 million
More women than men (52%)
Over half the population are children (8.5 out of 14.4 million)
Country has 28 districts (5 in the North)
Northern region has one ethnic group – dowry, patrilineal marriage system, predominantly rural

4. Situation of Child and Girls Marriage in Malawi
24 per cent of children married before 18 years
Half of women aged wee married before 18
Northern Region districts amongst the highest (minimum prevalence is 27%
Nation wide - almost one in four girls (23%) are married vs <2% of boys

6. Causal Factors of early marriage
It is normal for a girl child to marry
Empirical Expectations
Girls lose interest in school – love boys/men after reaching puberty
To improve family economic status through dowry
To sustain the clan - should have more children
Normative expectations
Girls still drop out of school after reaching puberty
Older woman – less sexual desire for husband
Shames the family if girl falls pregnant out of wedlock
Educated girl takes control over her husband
Reduced opportunity for bearing more children
Delayed family economic status
Age of marriage 16 years; low birth registration
Factual beliefs

7. Implications of Girl marriage
Violates child rights to life, education, freedom of association, separates children from families
Parenting skills?
Health risks - STIs
maternal deaths (50,000 annual deaths world wide for girls aged 15-19)
Girls aged are 5x likely to die due to pregnancy and child birth than year olds
HIV prevalence in girls in Malawi (3.7% in 2004 to 4.2% in 2011) Boys 0.4% to 1.3% respectively

8. Strategies for changing social Norms
Organized diffusion
Value deliberations on pros and cons of empirical, normative and normative personal beliefs (already under implementation)
Current strategy might not target the right reference network. Requires:
social mapping: to identify behavior patterns for proper programming – snow ball approach.
Network surveys: to identify reference networks to be targeted with value deliberations

9. Strategies continued…
Violence Prevention Campaign
Survey under way to establish the situation analysis
Campaign should be designed after establishing empirical expectations, normative personal beliefs, normative expectations, factual beliefs & social networks
study the reference networks – to identify which social behaviors matter

10. Strategies continued…
Identify enough people that are willing to change /core groups
Social mapping to identify people , networks
Core groups/networks - value deliberations on pros and cons of early marriage
women models – value deliberations with girls, population at risk
CSOs – creating public awareness on age at first marriage using value deliberations, campaigns
Media –Using vignettes – drama, radio programs
disseminate results on change in behavior; create awareness on social behaviors and their implications; provide alternatives to the scripts of marrying off girls…e.g. Early girls education; Abstinence, family planning
disrupt the gender schema on categorization of girls …creating personal normative believes; disrupt imperial expectations and creating new networks
Girls networks - value deliberations on pros and cons of marrying early

11. Strategies…
Violating the schema and the script on categorization of women
Schema – girls can not stay in school
Script – girls go to school, drop out after puberty, get married or have children out of wedlock
Disrupt social network and create new networks through addressing factual beliefs
How? -Support girls education and empowerment

12. Strategies…
Establish M&E system and demonstrate the results on change in social norms
Evaluations – asking the same questions using different wording
E.g. tracking change in Personal normative belief
What comes to your mind when you hear that a girl of 14 is getting married?
Would you allow your daughter to be married at the age of 14?
What would be your reaction if the government decides to increase age at first marriage to 21?
Was this the same belief you had 5 years ago?

13. Thank you