Ending Child Marriage - Tanzania

  • F Funding Initiative/Portfolio

? Activity Status: Unknown

Key Information

Child marriage is rife in Tanzania. The Shinyanga region has one of the highest prevalence rates of child marriage in the country, where 59% of girls are married by the age of 18. Young girls are forced into marriage for a variety of reasons – both cultural and economic – that are deeply entrenched. Child marriage itself is a form of abuse but it also most often results in limited educational and economic outcomes, especially for women and girls, contributing to continued cycles of poverty. Married to much older men, these young girls never finish school, become mothers themselves well before adulthood, and suffer a life of poverty and abuse that often goes unreported and ignored by government authorities. Community-based organizations are uniquely suited to navigate the space between national and international child rights policies and local cultural practices. Our CBO grantee-partners in Shinyanga work with children and young women directly to ensure that they know their rights, are safe, and receive the emotional care and support they need to thrive. They also work with a range of other stakeholders – families, community members, local leaders, child protection committees, and government authorities – in the fight against child marriage. Our CBO grantee-partners also provide direct evidence to the national government of child marriage rates and effective child marriage prevention solutions. Our twelve CBO grantee-partners are deploying a variety of approaches to fight against child marriage. Some of these approaches include: economic strengthening for families through income-generating activities, livestock pass-on programs, psychosocial support for children rescued from child marriage, vocational or educational support for children rescued from or at risk of child marriage, skillful parenting assistance for families, awareness campaigns to shift community mindsets about child marriage through radio or drama, law enforcement interventions, training of local child protection committees, creation of child rights clubs in schools, and taining of teachers on child rights


Lead Implementing Organization(s)

Location(s)

Sub-Saharan Africa

United Republic of Tanzania

Government Affiliation

Non-governmental program

Years

Not applicable or unknown

Partner(s)

Not applicable or unknown

Ministry Affiliation

Unknown

Funder(s)

Not applicable or unknown

COVID-19 Response

Adapted

Geographic Scope

National

Meets gender-transformative education criteria from the TES  

Unknown

Areas of Work Back to Top

Education areas

Other skills

  • Vocational training

Quality

  • Teacher training

Cross-cutting areas

  • COVID-19 Response
  • Early/child marriage
  • Economic/livelihoods (including savings/financial inclusion, etc.)
  • Empowerment
  • Social and gender norms and beliefs

Program participants

Target Audience(s)

Girls (both in school and out of school), Youth

Age

Not applicable or unknown

School Enrolment Status

Some in school

School Level

Not applicable or unknown

Other populations reached

  • Community leaders
  • Fathers
  • Mothers
  • Other community members - female
  • Other community members - male
  • Other family members
  • Parent-teacher associations/school management committees
  • School administrators
  • Teachers - female
  • Teachers - male

Participants include

Not applicable or unknown

Program Approaches Back to Top

Community engagement/advocacy/sensitization

  • Community mobilization
  • Technical assistance/capacity building to civil society organizations or governments

Learning while working

  • Vocational training

Life skills education

  • Gender, rights and power

Other

  • Other activities to end child marriage (not captured above)

Policy/legal environment

  • Advocating changes to existing laws/policies

School-related gender-based violence

  • Support in and around schools (e.g. peer counseling, adult-to-student counseling)
  • Training of school personnel (including teachers)

Social/gender norms change

  • Engaging parents/caregivers of students or school-age children/adolescents
  • Media campaigns

Women's empowerment programs

  • Advocacy/action

Program Goals Back to Top

Education goals

  • Increased years of schooling

Cross-cutting goals

  • Changed social norms
  • Increased agency and empowerment
  • Increased employment/job-related skills
  • Increased knowledge of rights
  • More equitable gender attitudes and norms
  • Reduced child marriage
  • Reduced poverty/increase household well-being