ESSSWA Signs new Project Agreement with Plan International, Ethiopia (PIE)

The backdrop for ESSSWA to win PIE’s tender was the availability of experienced researchers within its membership base. The gap on the prevalence of forced early marriage was identified by our experienced researchers that despite recent and accelerating progress towards eliminating early marriage, Ethiopia continues to have one of the highest rates of early marriage in the world. The median age at which Ethiopian women aged 25-49 marry is only 16.5 years and 41% of all women in their early 20s were married before they turned 18, albeit with significant regional variation. Thus, a 2.669 million Birr 10 months project under the title of: Learning and Linking Existing Early Marriage Program in Amhara, Oromia and SNNP – Ethiopia” was secured and project agreement signed on 26 May 2016.
The goal of this project is linking of existing initiatives on early marriage to stimulate collaboration among various actors and to increase the impact of interventions in Ethiopia. The following two objectives are formulated to attain this goal:
•Understanding the prevalence and drivers/barriers of early marriage in three hotspot woredas of Amhara, Oromia and SNNP Regional States; and
•Learning about what works in the existing early marriage programmes in Amhara, Oromia and SNNP Regional States.