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Table 3 Summary of Key Lessons Learned and Opportunities for Intervention to improve Sexual and Gender-based Violence and Early Marriage Among Youth in Jordan

From: A social-ecological examination into the research, policy and health service delivery environment related to early marriage and sexual and gender-based violence among youth in Jordan

Individual level

    • Ensure that youth have access to sexual and reproductive health information and services, including emergency contraception and post-rape care.

    • Encourage young girls to stay in school and promote life-skills and livelihoods training and financial independence [46, 52]. When young girls stay in school and succeed in their studies, they are less likely to be seen by their families and communities as ready for marriage [48]. Additionally, girls that are able to generate income may be seen as more valuable by their families [48].

    • Ensure that youth have access to quality SRHR information and services. Girls that are informed about their reproductive health may be more able to refuse early marriage [48].

    • Engage men and boys to support transformation of harmful gender norms.

Family and community levels

    • Transform gender norms early that lead to discrimination against girls and women and early marriage. Support teachers to eliminate discrimination in the classroom, and promote gender equity, respectful inter-personal relationships, and peaceful conflict resolution through the mandatory curriculum in schools [33].

    • Ensure schools have adequately trained social workers to support youth who experience gender-based violence in their homes. Build community protection committees and link them to other existing structures such as parent-teacher associations, school councils, child friendly spaces [49].

    • Engage communities in addressing early marriage by involving women, community and religious leaders, and educating them about the risks of early marriage [48, 49] Invest in informal policy and regulatory bodies within communities so that they are less willing to grant permission for early marriages [48, 66].

Policy and Service Delivery level

    • Integrate mental health services with SRHR services, and ensure access to quality services for sexual and gender-based violence for women and youth [28, 49]. Ensure that the health providers actively screen for violence as part of routine service provision [36]. Mobile services should also be strengthened to reach rural areas [52].

    • Support legal reform that empowers women to come forward by providing them with access to legal resources [52] and holds perpetrators of GBV and honor killing accountable.

    • Strengthen laws that prohibit early marriage, [28] including increasing the minimum age at which discretionary permission to marry can be granted by a shari‘a court and issuing more precise instructions with regard to the application of the special permissions to marry below the age of 18 [53].

    • Improve the enforcement of laws on early marriage so that law is systematically applied [36, 48].