Berhane Hewan: Pilot program to increase school enrollment

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Berhane Hewan Pilot program to increase school
enrollment delay marriage in rural Ethiopia

• Wendy Baldwin, PhD
• Population Council
• Presentation made at
• Global Health Mini-University
• Sept. 12, 2008

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Percentage of Ethiopian girls who are married by
age 15 and age 18, among those aged 15 to 24, by
region
Based on survival analysis to account for
censored cases Source PC tabulations of EDHS
Individual survey (2005)
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Median age at first sex and birth among Ethiopian
girls aged 15 to 24, by marital status age at
marriage
Based on survival analysis to account for
censored cases Source PC tabulations of EDHS
Individual survey (2005)
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Berhane Hewan (Light for Eve)

• Pilot project in Mosebo Kebele Administration,
  Amhara Region (second largest region in
  Ethiopia)
• Program of Ministry of Youth Sport Amhara
  Regional State Youth Sports Bureau
• Targets married and unmarried girls aged 10 to 19
• Pilot tested 2004 to 2006

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Objectives of Berhane Hewan

• Goal To establish appropriate effective
  mechanisms to protect girls at risk of forced
  early marriage and support adolescent girls who
  are already married.
• To create safe social spaces for the most
  vulnerable and isolated girls, including access
  to education
• To reduce the prevalence of early, child marriage
  among adolescent girls and
• To increase use of reproductive health services
  among sexually experienced girls.

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Three strategies used to achieve objectives

• Social mobilization and group formation by adult
  female mentors
• Participation in non-formal education
  livelihoods training for out of school girls, or
  support to remain in school, which included an
  economic incentive, and
• Community conversations, a technique engaging
  the community, at large, in discussion on key
  issues, including early marriage, and collective
  problem-solving.

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Social mobilization group formation

• Female mentors who are prominent women in the
  community, with at least 10 years education, and
  many with experience teaching non-formal
  education (NFE)
• Mentors trained for 5 days on non-formal
  education, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS,
  facilitation techniques
• Refresher training subsequently took place

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Social mobilization group formation (cont)

• Mentors recruit girls aged 10 to 19 through door
  to door visits in their communities
• Eligible girls invited to take part in program
• Permission and support sought from gatekeepers
  such as parents and husbands

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Girls groups support to remain in school

• Three options for participation
• Support to remain in/return to school
• Participation in unmarried girls groups led by
  mentors
• Participation in married girls groups led by
  mentors.

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Girls groups support to remain in school
(cont)

• Support to remain in/return to school
• Provision of school materials such as exercise
  books, pens, and pencils
• Participating girls were provided with an average
  of 36 Birr or US 4 per year, in school materials

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Girls groups support to remain in school
(cont)

• Participation in girls groups led by mentors
• Unmarried girls meet 5 times per week
• Provision of non-formal education, livelihoods
  skills, reproductive health education, and
  referrals

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Building family level support for girls
participation

• At the time of registration, family support was
  sought
• Both girl and parents
• Girls participation was requested at 80 percent
  of all meetings
• Girls who participated in 80 percent of meeting
  and were not married during the pilot period
  received a goat (value about 180 Birr, or US 20)

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Building community support for girls well-being

• Community conversations to discuss child marriage
  and other issues effecting the well being of
  girls.
• All community members regardless of age, sex or
  stature
• Community conversations take place every two
  weeks

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Participation in the program (2004-06)

Program is now being upscaled to 10,000 girls 10
to 19
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Evaluation of Berhane Hewan program

• Baseline survey in experimental and control sites
  before program started (2004)
• Endline survey in same sites after two years of
  intervention (2006)
• Control site allows us to measure exogenous
  changes
• Changes in experimental site, significantly
  different from control, attributable to project

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Extensive exposure to the intervention No
contamination in the control site

• 92 percent of girls in the experimental area had
  heard of Berhane Hewan Adolescent Girls
  Program
• Not one girl in the control site had heard of the
  program
• 85 percent of experimental girls participated in
  the program
• 52 percent supported to remain in school
• 23 percent in group for unmarried girls
• 10 percent in married girls groups
• 73 percent of girls attended a community
  conversation, mainly on early marriage or HIV/AIDS

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Significant increases in educational
participation
Educational participation among experimental
control respondents, by time of survey and age
group
Differences between groups significant at
plt0.05 plt0.01 plt0.001
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Changes in patterns of marriage
Marriage among experimental control groups, by
time of survey age group
Differences between groups significant at
plt0.05 plt0.01 plt0.001
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Significant delays in marriage from early to
later adolescence
Percent of adolescent girls married at endline,
by age area of residence
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Summary of Berhane Hewan Impact
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Improving girls lives through effective
programming

• Berhane Hewan is one of Africas first rigorously
  evaluated programs aiming to delay marriage and
  increase educational participation
• Program was extremely well implemented, with high
  coverage
• Demonstrates that significant changes in marriage
  and education can be effected in relatively short
  time period.

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Project Leadership

• Annabel Eruklar, Ph.D.
• Country Director,
• Ethiopia
• aerulkar_at_popcouncil.org