Toolkit: Context Analysis on Child Marriage in Crises and Forced Displacement Settings

"A context analysis is a form of research. It is a study that can either be done quickly and with limited resources, or it can be scaled up to be more comprehensive and involve a high number of research participants."

This toolkit provides guidance for conducting a context analysis to inform programming around child marriage in crisis or displacement settings. Developed as part of a collaboration between Plan International and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the toolkit offers guidance and practical tools to help plan, collect, and analyse data about child marriage together with adolescent girls and their communities. The findings of the context analysis are meant to inform existing programming and service delivery for girls and their families affected by child marriage, as well as to define future prevention and response work, grounded in the operational reality. The findings of the context analysis can also be used to inform advocacy strategies to ensure appropriate prioritisation among actors and donors.

As explained in the toolkit, "Child marriage is a complex practice - and a form of gender-based violence. It is driven by a range of push and pull factors. These factors may change depending on different population sub-groups, across geographic locations of the same population groups, or at different moments during a crisis. The goal of conducting a context analysis is to take a snapshot of the risk and protective factors that are influencing families' and girls' decision making around child marriage. The analysis can also be adapted to assess the capacity of current programming and services as well as the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of staff. The analysis will change over time and should be regularly updated in order to remain accurate and reliable as an evidence base for strategic decisions."

The toolkit is arranged in three sections:

Section A: About this Toolkit - provides background information on conducting a child marriage context analysis. It explains the four guiding principles that inform how the context analysis is approached and how researchers should interact with the data. These guiding principles are Intersectionality, Girl-Responsiveness, Do No Harm, and the Socio-Ecological Model. It also offers a summary version of the "What We Need to Know about Child Marriage Tool", which is designed to help programme staff think through the different information they may want to gather to inform their context analysis (see more information below).

Section B: Conducting the Context Analysis - details the process for conducting the context analysis and presents simple steps to conduct a context analysis on child marriage. It is designed to help programme staff plan, collect, and analyse information in order to take more informed decisions regarding programming, service delivery, advocacy, or capacity building for staff to tackle child marriage in a given context. The five steps, which each highlight relevant tools (in most cases hyperlinked) to assist with that step, are as follows:

• Step 1: Decide the scope of your context analysis
• Step 2: Conduct literature review
• Step 3: Collect primary data (optional)
• Step 4: Analyse and validate data
• Step 5: Publish and disseminate context analysis

Section C: Tools and Templates - lists the tools and resources referenced throughout the toolkit, including checklists, templates, and a list of publications that offer more in-depth information and further guidance.

The toolkit is accompanied by "The What We Need to Know about Child Marriage Tool", which is designed to help programme staff to think through the different information they may want to gather to inform their context analysis. The tool is structured using an adapted socio-ecological model and is intended to inform and structure the information organisations may need to gather. The tool maps out various risk and protective factors at the individual, family, societal, and humanitarian response levels so as to capture the circumstances surrounding child marriage. It also supports users to unpack harmful socio-cultural and gender norms, as well as to identify new risks and opportunities arising as a result of the crisis and response. According to the publication, this approach guides the user to look holistically at the practice of child marriage. It should also help users identify unique factors and direct them to missing information.