Time to Act! Storming the Norms

"[T]here is a need to increase the knowledge base and evidence around which, and how, social norms and gender norms perpetuate CEFM through the complex interaction between norms, attitudes and behaviours."



Grounded in underlying factors that are complex and interrelated, child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM) has significant and adverse effects on girls. While these factors vary by context, a common and significant root cause is gender inequalities and harmful social norms that devalue girls and women and restrict their freedom to make decisions. In line with Plan International's Gender Transformative Approach (GTA), this report by the Plan International Asia-Pacific (APAC) Regional Hub focuses on identifying gender norms, as a sub-set of social norms, that perpetuate CEFM in the Asia-Pacific region (with a particular emphasis on Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, and Timor-Leste). The report outlines different manifestations of gender bias regarding social assignment of gender roles, access to and control of resources based on a person's gender, and the participation of girls and young women in decision-making in the household and over their bodies and lives.



As the report explains, CEFM is not a norm itself; instead, it is a harmful practice or set of practices that is a manifestation of social and gender norms (and other factors):

• Social norms are what individuals believe that others in their reference group (i.e., the group they identify themselves to be a part of) think and do, or what people believe is typical behaviour or expectations about what people should do. Social norms are not all bad; they can fulfil a range of functions that are deemed useful in communities/societies.
• Gender norms are "social norms defining acceptable and appropriate actions for women and men in a given group or society". Gender norms are embedded in and reproduced through institutions and social interactions, and they are enforced by powerholders who benefit from people's compliance with them.

Norms can be changed by several influencing factors, including broad drivers (e.g., economic development, new laws, education, change in demographics, etc.), individual factors (e.g., socio-economic conditions, personal attitudes, knowledge, or skills, one's family/community, personal agency, etc.), and transmission mechanisms (e.g., media, information and communication technology (ICT), religious leaders, etc.). Social and gender norms can change in one of two ways: They may harden or become more discriminatory, or they can relax and allow new practices to emerge. One example demonstrating the process of how gender norms change is outlined as follows:

• Information: Parents receive information about the benefits of educating girls, harms of CEFM, laws against CEFM, and girls' right to an education.
• Informal dialogue between peers articulating the new norms: Parents, community members and leaders, and girls themselves discuss why they think delaying marriage is important (e.g., for health and safety reasons, fulfilment of rights, opportunities for better quality of life, etc.).
• Modelling new behaviour: Families continue to send girls to school and agree to delay the marriage of their daughter, and girls are continuing to live with their families.
• Endorsement by role models: Religious or traditional leaders promote messages supporting girls' education, they correct misconceptions and state that there is no traditional or religious need for girls to be married at puberty, or recognised role models speak out against child marriage, etc.

The Social-Ecological Model (SEM) was used as a study framework that provided the foundational concept for assessing root causes, as well as risks and protective factors, interrelated with CEFM across five levels: individual, interpersonal, community, organisational, and societal/policy environment. This framework views CEFM as the outcome of the interaction among many factors at these five levels.



Qualitative data were collected through a literature review, remote/online key informant interviews (KIIs), and online workshops with Plan International CEFM focal points. The research was conducted using co-design: Plan International staff, practitioners and advocates working on this issue were engaged in the development of a "tools package", which is designed to ensure the relevance and accuracy of the strategic analysis needed to counter negative social and gender norms perpetuating CEFM. The Scoping, Highlighting, Identifying, Formulating and Transforming (SHIFT) Social Norms and Gender Norms Tools Package© (see Section E in the report) includes: a) diagnostic and analytical tools to identify and address negative norms, and b) indicators and metrics for measuring the norms shift. Moreover, the package contains visual frameworks, detailed activities, and guide questions to support programme staff in the conduct of formative research, analysis, strategy implementation, and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of social and gender norm interventions and projects. Just as with the research's main approach, the developed tools package is strongly informed and guided by the GTA.



Findings of the research reinforce the assertion that social and gender norms curtail adolescent girls' freedoms, access to resources, and participation in decision-making. Gender norms ascribe lower value on girls in patriarchal societies, which in turn, limit married girls' agency, autonomy, and access to opportunities and place them at greater risk of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). The study also addresses the need for more in-depth and targeted information on which specific social and gender norms perpetuate CEFM, including:

• The centrality of marriage and family honour;
• Women's domestic and subordinated role in the family and their primary function as wives and mothers;
• The restriction around girls' mobility;
• Traditional beliefs regarding sexuality, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and femininity and masculinity;
• The notions of women's premarital virginity and purity being paramount to maintaining family honour;
• Limitations on women's and girls' access to resources and to the benefits from those resources; and
• The expected obedience to elders, filial piety, and age hierarchies that aggravate gender norms that hinder girls' voice and agency.

Recommendations to counter social and gender norms that perpetuate CEFM include the following:

• Invest in and implement girls' empowerment initiatives.
• Engage young people as partners in youth-led activism.
• Work with faith-based leaders to transform harmful social and gender norms.
• Influence individual family and community awareness and attitudes around social and gender norms that impact girls' education.
• Deliver gender-sensitive, context-specific, and comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) and SRHR information and services.
• Engage men and boys as change agents.
• Use multipronged strategies to change harmful norms and attitudes and to optimise gender equality laws and strengthen their implementation.

The report also presents concrete recommendations on next steps for Plan International staff and other practitioners in the field of eliminating CEFM to learn from the research and deliver social and gender norm change programming using a GTA:

1. Design programmes from the onset with social and gender norm change goals - Plan International's GTA should be used to ensure that programme design of CEFM interventions incorporates the six elements that can help accelerate change and tackle the root causes of gender inequality:
   • Addressing gender norms throughout the life-course;
   • Strengthening girls' and young women's agency;
   • Advancing both the condition and position of girls, young women, and women;
   • Working with boys, young men, and men so that they embrace gender equality and exercise positive and diverse masculinities;
   • Responding to the needs and interests of girls and boys in all their diversity; and
   • Fostering an enabling environment for gender equality and girls' rights.
2. Draw learning from evidence-based interventions (EBIs) that have measurably transformed social and gender norms - Examples of social and gender norm change programmes are provided in the Summary of Promising Practices section of the report and include strategies such as: supporting girls' empowerment by multidimensional programming addressing various intersecting drivers; conducting family-based interventions; mobilising community members and leaders using organised diffusion; engaging boys and men; delivering entertainment education, along with couple-based interventions; involving faith-based and religious leaders; and carrying out creative evaluations. Common elements of EBIs identified in these endeavours' design and implementation include:
   • Having a rigorously planned, robust theory of change, rooted in knowledge of local context;
   • Using a gender-power analysis;
   • Emphasising women's empowerment, and allowing sufficient time for critical reflection and communication and conflict resolution skills building;
   • Using age-appropriate design and methods;
   • Having carefully selected and sufficiently trained and supported staff and community change agents to roll-out social and gender norm change interventions; and
   • Selecting strategies that span across the ecological framework - i.e., strategies from those that primarily focus on working with individual girls, and those that address interpersonal communication and relationships, to those that operate at the institutional and policy levels.
3. Maximise the use of research findings and data for evidence-based programming on social and gender norm change - For example, once it is known in a particular country context where the exceptions lie regarding a particular gender norm (e.g., men do not do work around the home, but in some communities, younger fathers are starting to help in child rearing), then the programme can identify these "role models" to diffuse positive messages and model behaviours towards ending CEFM.
4. Expand social- and gender-norm-change-related interventions to include reinforcing positive norms - For example, there are positive norms around "parents wanting what is best for the child" that can be used as a positive force for change - e.g., by providing examples of how the positive norm is actually aligned with the change objective - such as delaying marriage - that can bring positive benefits to girls.
5. Conduct further research including determining what has successfully caused norm shifts - To address the dearth of existing work on measuring shifts in social norms in a way that more closely follows social norms theory, the SHIFT Tools Package, referenced above, aims to support programme, research and evaluation teams to answer seven questions:
   • What are the social norms and gender norms that influence CEFM the most?
   • Why do people comply with social norms?
   • Who are the gatekeepers/powerholders that reinforce social and gender norms perpetuating CEFM?
   • How are the social and gender norms reproduced and amplified through institutions and power dynamics in social interactions?
   • How severe or weak are the sanctions perceived to be for disobeying the norm?
   • Are there "allowable" and/or "acceptable" exceptions to the social and gender norms?
   • Are there misalignments between personal attitudes of intended project community members and what they believe are the social expectations in their community/group?