Indicator 5.3.1 Proportion of women aged 20–24 years who were married or in a union before age 15 and before age 18

Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Target 5.3: Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation

Indicator 5.3.1: Proportion of women aged 20-24 years who were married or in a union before age 15 and before age 18

December 2021

Related indicators Goal 3, Goal 4 and Goal 16

Uganda Bureau Of Statistics

Uganda Bureau Of Statistics

Ms. Pamela Kakande

Demography & Social Statistics (DSS)

Senior Statistician

+256 772 303441

P.O.Box 7186Kampala

pamela.kakande@ubos.org

Definition:

Proportion of women aged 20-24 years who were married or in a union before age 15 and before age 18

Concepts:

Both formal (i.e., marriages) and informal unions are covered under this indicator. Informal unions are generally defined as those in which a couple lives together for some time, intends to have a lasting relationship, but for which there has been no formal civil , religious or ceremony (i.e., cohabitation).

Percent

Not Applicable

The Uganda Demographic and Health Surveys (UDHS).

Sample Design:

The sample design for the 2016 UDHS used the sampling frame from the Uganda National Population and Housing Census (NPHC 2014). The census frame is a complete list of all census Enumeration Areas (EAs) created for the 2014 NPHC. In Uganda, an EA is a geographic area that covers an average of about 130 households.

At the time of the NPHC, Uganda was divided administratively into 112 districts, which were grouped for this survey into 15 regions. The sample for the 2016 UDHS was designed to provide estimates of key indicators for the country as a whole, for urban and rural areas separately, and for each of the 15 sub regions. Estimates are also presented for three special areas: the Lake Victoria islands, the mountainous districts, and greater Kampala.

The 2016 UDHS sample was stratified and selected in two stages. In the first stage, 697 EAs were selected from the 2014 NPHC, 162 EAs in urban areas and 535 in rural areas.

Households constituted the second stage of sampling. A listing of households was compiled in each of the 696 accessible selected EAs from April to October 2016.

To minimize the task of household listing, each large EA (that is to say more than 300 households) selected for the 2016 UDHS was segmented. Only one segment was selected for the survey with probability proportional to segment size, and the household listing was conducted only in the selected segment.

Out of the 20,880 selected households (30 households per EA), 18,506 women aged 15-49 were successfully interviewed. All women age 15-49 who were either permanent residents of the selected households or visitors who stayed in the household the night before the survey were eligible to be interviewed. In one-third of the sampled households, all men age 15-54, including both usual residents and visitors who stayed in the household the night before the interview, were eligible for individual interviews.

Recruitment and Training:

UBOS recruited and trained field staff to serve as supervisors, CAPI managers, interviewers, health technicians, and reserve interviewers for the main fieldwork. Health technicians were trained separately from interviewers. A two day f ield practice was organized to provide trainees with additional hands on practice before the actual fieldwork. Prior to the main field work, a pre-test was conducted and best practices were adopted.

Questionnaires:

Four questionnaires were used for the 2016 UDHS: The Household Questionnaire, the Woman’s Questionnaire, the Man’s Questionnaire, and the Biomarker Questionnaire. The questionnaires, based on The DHS Program’s model questionnaires, were adapted to reflect the population and health issues relevant to Uganda.

Input was solicited from all stakeholders such as; Government Ministries and Agencies, Non-governmental Organizations, and Development partners. After the finalization of the questionnaires in English, they were then translated into eight major local languages. The Household, Woman’s, and Man’s Questionnaires were programmed into a computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) application for data collection purposes.

Data collection:

Data collection was conducted by 21 field teams, each consisting of one team leader, one field data Manager, three female interviewers, one male interviewer, one health technician, and a driver. The health technicians were responsible for anthropometric measurements, blood sample collection for Hemoglobin and malaria testing, and DBS specimen collection for vitamin A testing.

The, interviewers used tablets to record all questionnaire responses during the interviews. The tablets were equipped with Bluetooth technology to enable remote electronic transfer of files, such as assignments from the team supervisor to the interviewers, individual questionnaires among survey team members, and completed questionnaires from interviewers to team supervisors.

The field supervisors transferred data to the central data processing office via IFSS. Senior staff from the Makerere University School of Public Health, the Ministry of Health, and UBOS and a survey technical specialist from the DHS Program coordinated and supervised fieldwork activities. Data collection took place over a 6-month period from June 2016 through December 2016.

Every five years

Uganda Bureau of statistics

Department of Demographic and Social Statistics

The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) Act, 1998 provides for the development and maintenance of National Statistical System (NSS) to ensure collection, analysis and publication of integrated, relevant, reliable and timely statistical information. It established the Bureau as a coordinating, monitoring and supervisory body for the NSS.

Marriage before the age of 18 is a fundamental violation of human rights. Child marriage often compromises a girl’s development by resulting in early pregnancy and social isolation, interrupting her schooling, limiting her opportunities for career and vocational advancement and placing her at increased risk of intimate partner violence. In many cultures, girls reaching puberty are expected to assume gender roles associated with womanhood. These include entering a union and becoming a mother. The practice of early/child marriage is a direct manifestation of gender inequality.

The measure of child marriage is retrospective in nature by design, capturing age at first marriage among a population that has completed the risk period (i.e., adult women). While it is also possible to measure the current marital status of girls under age 18, such measures would provide an underestimate of the level of child marriage, as girls who are not currently married may still do so before they turn 18.

Collection of information on sexual behavior of individuals is usually a challenge.

Number of women aged 20-24 who were first married or in union before age 15 (or before age 18) divided by the total number of women aged 20-24 in the population multiplied by 100

A wide consultative process is undertaken to compile, assess and validate data on this indicator.

UBOS gather data on child marriage through Demographic and Health Surveys.

1. The survey implementation is overseen by a Technical Working Group which is constituted using a multi sectorial approach.

2. The survey report is reviewed by an experienced team at Management level who are in most cases Directors or Heads of departments and key stakeholders from Makerere School of Public Health, Molecular Laboratory of Makerere University School of Health Sciences, Ministry of Health and later reviewed by consultants

The UDHS goes through several stages before production and sharing of the final findings. During the Survey implementation.

1. Consultative user needs assessment meetings are held with all key stakeholders.
2. ICF International provided consultants to oversee the UDHS
3. The survey and sampling design generated using scientific methods as recommended by the Census and Survey Rules and Regulations.
4. Survey staff are trained on the survey tool and the CAPI application before deployment to the field.
5. The questionnaire development for different categories of the Target respondents was adapted to reflect the population and health issues relevant to Uganda. (Man’s Questionnaire, Woman’s questionnaire, Biomarker questionnaire and Field worker questionnaire. This follows a multi-stakeholder approach and pretesting helps to establish the relevancy and adequacy of the questions to be used. vi. Senior Supervision is conducted during data collection to ensure that quality data is collected.
6. Debriefing meetings are implemented during agreed intervals to discuss operational and technical field challenges. viii. Field Data editing, Secondary data cleaning and coding is undertaken before analysis and report writing.
7. An independent quality assurance team is hired to check on the quality of the survey during various phases of the survey

Before dissemination, the report is reviewed and quality assured by a professional team of the National Statistical System.

Quality Control is addressed at all levels during Survey implementation.

Non

The estimates compiled are not adjusted or recalculated.

data.unicef.org A Generation to Protect: Monitoring violence exploitation and abuse of children within the SDG framework (UNICEF 2020).

References:

https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-protection/child-marriage/ https://data.unicef.org/resources/a-generation-to-protect/ https://www.ubos.org/wp-content/uploads/publications/03_202007_2018UDHS_2016_FInal.pdf http://dhsprogram.com