The Role of Identification in Ending Child Marriage

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’s Goal for Gender Equality (SDG5 to: Achieve Gender Equality and Empower Women and Girls) sets a series of ambitious targets that will measure progress towards attaining this goal. One such target is to:...

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Main Authors: Hanmer, Lucia, Elefante, Marina
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/08/26720171/role-identification-ending-child-marriage-identification-development-id4d
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25184
id okr-10986-25184
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-251842021-06-14T10:13:02Z The Role of Identification in Ending Child Marriage Hanmer, Lucia Elefante, Marina human rights birth registration child marriage refugees marriage certificates indentification ID law enforcement The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’s Goal for Gender Equality (SDG5 to: Achieve Gender Equality and Empower Women and Girls) sets a series of ambitious targets that will measure progress towards attaining this goal. One such target is to: ‘eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation. In this paper we examine how efforts to achieve legal identity for all, including birth registration for all, can contribute to ending child marriage. The authors begin by setting out the current context presenting data on child marriage and its impacts and then turn to birth registration drawing out its links with fundamental human rights and development goals. We then present estimates of the numbers of unregistered children in the world’s global regions based on the World Bank Identification for Development Initiative (ID4D) dataset. The authors turn next to the link between birth registration and child marriage rates6 using data on birth registration in the 106 countries for which authors also have data on child marriage. The authors find a correlation between high birth registration rates and low child marriage rates and discuss this link in the context of evidence on the underlying causes and drivers of child marriage. The authors explore the links between birth registration and child marriage in greater depth in two case studies: the first one examines the role of identity papers, particularly birth and marriage certificates, in the enforcement of minimum age of marriage laws for Syrian refugees in Jordan; the second one discusses how a recently adopted strategy to streamline the process for obtaining birth certificates in Indonesia can contribute to reducing child marriage. Despite evidence of a correlation, however, a policy pursuing universal birth registration is unlikely to have impact on child marriage rates unless it is embedded in broader efforts to end child marriage, including legal reform, advocacy, and national and local policies and programs which work with communities to change social norms and are designed to reach people that are at risk from being excluded from national efforts, for example refugees and internally displaced peoples. 2016-10-18T16:27:06Z 2016-10-18T16:27:06Z 2016-07 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/08/26720171/role-identification-ending-child-marriage-identification-development-id4d http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25184 English en_US CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Working Paper Indonesia Syrian Arab Republic
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
en_US
topic human rights
birth registration
child marriage
refugees
marriage certificates
indentification
ID
law enforcement
spellingShingle human rights
birth registration
child marriage
refugees
marriage certificates
indentification
ID
law enforcement
Hanmer, Lucia
Elefante, Marina
The Role of Identification in Ending Child Marriage
geographic_facet Indonesia
Syrian Arab Republic
description The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’s Goal for Gender Equality (SDG5 to: Achieve Gender Equality and Empower Women and Girls) sets a series of ambitious targets that will measure progress towards attaining this goal. One such target is to: ‘eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation. In this paper we examine how efforts to achieve legal identity for all, including birth registration for all, can contribute to ending child marriage. The authors begin by setting out the current context presenting data on child marriage and its impacts and then turn to birth registration drawing out its links with fundamental human rights and development goals. We then present estimates of the numbers of unregistered children in the world’s global regions based on the World Bank Identification for Development Initiative (ID4D) dataset. The authors turn next to the link between birth registration and child marriage rates6 using data on birth registration in the 106 countries for which authors also have data on child marriage. The authors find a correlation between high birth registration rates and low child marriage rates and discuss this link in the context of evidence on the underlying causes and drivers of child marriage. The authors explore the links between birth registration and child marriage in greater depth in two case studies: the first one examines the role of identity papers, particularly birth and marriage certificates, in the enforcement of minimum age of marriage laws for Syrian refugees in Jordan; the second one discusses how a recently adopted strategy to streamline the process for obtaining birth certificates in Indonesia can contribute to reducing child marriage. Despite evidence of a correlation, however, a policy pursuing universal birth registration is unlikely to have impact on child marriage rates unless it is embedded in broader efforts to end child marriage, including legal reform, advocacy, and national and local policies and programs which work with communities to change social norms and are designed to reach people that are at risk from being excluded from national efforts, for example refugees and internally displaced peoples.
format Working Paper
author Hanmer, Lucia
Elefante, Marina
author_facet Hanmer, Lucia
Elefante, Marina
author_sort Hanmer, Lucia
title The Role of Identification in Ending Child Marriage
title_short The Role of Identification in Ending Child Marriage
title_full The Role of Identification in Ending Child Marriage
title_fullStr The Role of Identification in Ending Child Marriage
title_full_unstemmed The Role of Identification in Ending Child Marriage
title_sort role of identification in ending child marriage
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2016
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/08/26720171/role-identification-ending-child-marriage-identification-development-id4d
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25184
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