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Good practice Imported

Berhane Hewan ('Light for Eve') — Delaying Child Marriage Through Girls' Education in Rural Amhara, Ethiopia

Ethiopia · Mosebo (Yilmana Densa woreda) · See the Ethiopia profile

Evidence: Quasi-experimental Top 29% 82/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Berhane Hewan (2004–2006) paired mentors, school supplies and a livestock incentive in Mosebo, Amhara, Ethiopia. Participating girls were three times more likely to stay in school and a tenth as likely to marry as girls in a control village.

3x
Relative likelihood of school enrolment, girls 10-14 vs control
0.1x
Relative likelihood of marriage, girls 10-14 vs control

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Population Council / Amhara Regional Youth Bureau / Ethiopia Ministry of Youth and Sport, with UNFPA
Period
2004–2006 (pilot in Mosebo); expanded regionally as a 'second-generation' model through 2018
Keywords
education, child marriage prevention, adolescent reproductive health

Context

In 2004, the Amhara Regional Bureau of Youth and Sport, with the Population Council and UNFPA funding, launched Berhane Hewan in Mosebo, Ethiopia, where roughly half of girls were married by age 15, using mentors, school supplies and a livestock incentive to keep girls unmarried and in school.

Results

A quasi-experimental evaluation against a matched control village found girls aged 10-14 in Mosebo were three times more likely to be enrolled in school and one-tenth as likely to be married as peers in the control site; married participating girls were three times more likely to report using family planning.

Conclusions

As a single-village pilot compared against one control site, the very large effect sizes should be read as proof-of-concept evidence rather than guaranteed population-wide impact.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Short (< 1 year)
Staffing & skills
four local female mentors running out-of-school groups

Conditions for success

  • conditional livestock transfer tied to keeping daughters unmarried and in school
  • combination of literacy, life skills, reproductive health and financial literacy content

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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