Spinning Off Unwanted Assets

When Time Warner drilled down into the deterioration of their magazine assets in an increasingly online world, they did what so many companies do in parallel situations: announced the spin off the magazine group into separate publicly traded entity. Where values can be sold to third parties, even at distressed prices, many companies discard their unwanted operations that way. Great corporate strategy, but unfortunately, this seems to be an operational theory in developing nations, where families facing economically hard times spin off the extra younger mouths to feed.

World Vision is a non-profit with a focus on children and poverty. They help people with a bit of spare cash to sponsor impoverished children all over the world. They also make sure the world knows the facts surrounding child poverty and the accompanying life endangerment. In a report issued on March 8^th (International Women’s Day), World Vision examined the ugly truth about a nasty habit of child marriage in many developing nations, where girls and women are looked upon as chattel or, at best, second class human beings. The resulting report, entitled Untying the Knot: Exploring Early Marriage in Fragile States addressed a statistical finding that in under-developed nations, when natural disaster, violent conflict (and the rape, destruction and displacement that follows) and/or financial collapse occur, the incidence of child brides being married off rises.

For the record, these brides are not love-starved teens and pre-teens looking to couple with their true loves. These are forced marriages, some to reduce the economic burden on the family, some to generate a dowry, while others are seen as protecting the child from lack of opportunity or the ravages of rape, war or environmental catastrophe. The parents often believe it is for the little girl’s own good. The United Nations reports that half of all girls in the world 51 least-developed countries were married by age 18… but an 18-year-old bride is most certainly an elder compared to the 12-13 year-olds finding themselves with a vastly older husband.

World Vision notes: Of the 25 countries with the highest rates of early marriage, the majority are affected by conflict, fragility, or natural disasters, the report finds… And girls trapped in early marriage tend to be poor, under-educated, and living in rural areas where birth and death rates are high and where conflict is common… Other drivers included harmful traditional practices and the lack of alternative opportunities for girls — in particular, the lack of opportunity to go to school. Girls will also marry because of threats and coercion.

The report identified the top 10 countries with the highest child marriage rates:

Country	Percent married before 15	Percent married before 18
1. Niger*	36 percent	75 percent
2. Chad*	35 percent	72 percent
3. Bangladesh*	32 percent	66 percent
4. Guinea	20 percent	66 percent
5. Central African Republic	21 percent	61 percent
6. Mali*	15 percent	55 percent
7. Mozambique*	17 percent	52 percent
8. Nepal*	10 percent	51 percent
9. Malawi*	9 percent	50 percent
10. Ethiopia*	24 percent	49 percent

* Countries where World Vision works to help build communities that promote and provide for women and girls’ development along with men and boys.

Not only is this a cruel and degrading process, but childbirth in younger girls carries a particularly higher risk of complications and death. But what can be done? “[Erica Hall, Child Rights Policy director at World Vision points] out that requiring marriage registration and working on a grassroots community level is key to creating systemic change. She cited examples such as the Grandmother's Project in southern Senegal, a nonprofit partner of World Vision that focuses on reducing early marriage, female genital mutilation and early pregnancy by creating an intergenerational dialogue about how to shift the gender-role paradigm.” Huffington Post, March 8^th.  

It’s usually not changing the laws that matters, because in most countries the practice is illegal; enforcement is haphazard and not prioritized. And so much of the economic disruption can be traced to drought generated by global climate change. “The issue of child marriage has gained momentum outside of the NGO world as well. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced last October a public-private initiative that focuses on ending child marriage by increasing education opportunities, providing training among officials and tracking every country's legal minimum age of marriage...” Huffington Post. Support through local religious groups, working through organizations like World Vision (sponsoring girls out of dire poverty) and generally letting your elected representatives know that you care are tangible steps we can all take to help solve this horrible abuse.

I’m Peter Dekom, and we if don’t care and speak out, who will?