Supporting adolescent girls for ending child forced marriage in Turkana, Kenya

In Turkana West, Kenya, young girls face two key challenges: child, early and forced marriage, which is a form of sexual and gender-based violence, and limited access to sexual and reproductive health services. Child and forced marriages are prohibited by Kenyan national law. However, the practice is still widespread due to weak enforcement of laws and customary and cultural norms. In the Turkana West region, the practice is particularly widespread, with approximately half of all women experiencing child marriage compared to the national average of 12.5%.

The overarching research objective of this project is to increase evidence-based knowledge on the approaches to shift attitudes to prevent child, early and forced marriage and improve sexual and reproductive health service provision for early-age adolescents in Turkana West. The research will be conducted in eight intervention villages (four of which will also pilot knowledge-translation hubs) and four control villages, utilizing pre- and post-test evaluations. The research will assess the impact of community-led and gender-transformative interventions while offering new perspectives on the lived experiences of the focus population, with the active engagement of community members throughout the entire research process. Through this collaborative approach, the study seeks to challenge power dynamics to drive gender-transformative change, generating actionable evidence for better policy and practice related to child, early and forced marriage and sexual and reproductive health and rights in Turkana West and beyond.

This project is funded through the Addressing Neglected Areas of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa (ANeSA) initiative. ANeSA is a seven-year CAD29.9-million initiative funded by IDRC, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Global Affairs Canada. Its primary objective is to support greater realization of critical sexual and reproductive health and rights by underserved populations in Africa.