CARE Burundi P-Bouge Series
Brief No. 1.2

Children’s Impact Group

Situational Analysis

Background

The Burundian Context

How do children and youth in Burundi experience poverty and vulnerability?

Underlying causes: What key drivers perpetuate poverty and vulnerability among children and youth?

Traditional Hierarchy and the Cultural Marginalization of Children

Governance

Overpopulation

Moving Forward: What opportunities for change exist within this context? And what are CARE’s next steps in promoting positive change for children?

Opportunities

Next Steps

1. Background

1.1 The Burundian Context

After 13 years of civil war, which spanned from 1993-2005, Burundi continues to struggle to overcome the effects of conflict. Sparked by the assassination of President Melchior Ndadaye in 1993, the conflict erupted into ethnic fighting between the Tutsi dominated army and armed Hutu groups.[1]During the war, 300,000 to 400,000 civilians were killed and 1.3 million (16-19 percent of the population) became displaced, as communities were torn apart by ethnic fighting.[2]

In internal displacement and refugee camps, people lived in insecurity and poverty. Life in camps brought a rise in alcoholism, a spike in violence against women and girls, along with the spread of HIV and AIDS.[3] A 2000 study by International Rescue Committee on the state of Burundian refugee camps in Tanzania found that many women and girls reported high rates of sexual violence and harassment, particularly in the forms of rape and forced marriages. Refugees International also found an increase in transactional sex within camps, as girls traded sex for personal supplies.[4] These conditions led to a rise in HIV and AIDS as well as other sexual transmitted infections, in addition to unwanted pregnancies.

Beyond the camps, an estimated 100,000 men, women and children also joined rebel groups, either through abduction or due to poverty or political beliefs. [5]With rebel groups, children took on a number of roles which ranged from sexual slaves, porters, cooks or combatants. There, women and girls were exposed to violence, missed years of education and many mothered children of rebels. While no accurate figures exist on the numbers of children combatants, of the over 40,000 demobilized FNL and CNDD rebel group soldiers, more than3000 were children, though many more child soldiers were excluded from the demobilization process.[6]

The effects of the war continue to fuel poverty and vulnerability across the nation. Today, the country ranks 174th of 182 countries in the Human Development Index, and 81 percent of Burundians live below the international poverty line of $1.25 per day.[7] Ninety-two percent of Burundians rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. With only 11,880 square kilometers of arable land and a population of 8.5 million, many households struggle to cultivate enough crops to feed themselves.[8]Nearly 40 percent of children under five were underweight and 53 percent face chronic malnutrition[9]In 2007, over one million people relied on food aid.

Poor infrastructure also denies many Burundians of basic services. During the war, three-quarters of district health centers were destroyed.[10]Today, nearly a third of the population does not have sustained access to clean water (34 percent and 20 percent in rural and urban areas, respectively) and almost two thirds do not have access to basic sanitation facilities.[11]

Given the violence, deterioration of government institutions and services, loss and poverty that marked the lives of communities throughout the war, Burundi has one of the highest proportions of orphans and children affected by HIV and AIDS in relation to the overall population. Fifteen thousand children are currently living with HIV or AIDS in Burundi, with 240,000 orphans affected by HIV.[12] Eight hundred thirty-six thousand children (nearly 11 percent of the population) are categorized as vulnerable due to a combination of these factors.[13] Among orphans, twenty percent are in child-headed households. As a result of sexual exploitation associated with conflict, many have also been born to single mothers, sometimes children themselves.

Children in Burundi

In Burundi, children not only represent a group that has been particularly affected by the war, but also a group that will be critical for the country’s future peace and development. With 66 percent of the population under the age of 25[P1], however, the weak and agriculturally dependent economy offers few livelihood opportunities for a largely young population.[14] In order to both protect the rights of childrenand promote peace and development in Burundi, CARE and its partners decided to focus on this group over the next ten to 15 years of programming.[15]

To better serve this group, CARE staff and partners have engaged in a situational analysis, including literature review, focus group discussions, appreciative inquiry, interviews and reviews of program documents over the past year to understand the experiences and drivers of poverty and vulnerability among children in Burundi. This paper presents some of the key findings from this research, in order to highlight:

  • How do children in Burundi experience poverty and vulnerability?
  • Underlying causes: What key drivers perpetuate poverty and vulnerability among children?
  • Moving Forward: What opportunities for change exist within this context? And what are CARE’s next steps in promoting positive change for children?

1.2 How do children in Burundi experience poverty and vulnerability?

The first step to understanding poverty and vulnerability among children is to understand how they experience poverty and vulnerability in their lives. Using international conventions on the rights of children as a framework, the research showed that economically and socially vulnerable children in Burundi, face multiple rights denials across various dimensions of their lives:

1.2.1 Rights to identity and nationality, with recognition of family relations and responsibility[16]

  • Children born to single or divorced mothers are often not supported or recognized by their fathers.
  • Many children who are not recognized by their fathers or are from marginalized households are born without having their births registered and as a result, lose their right to identity and citizenship. In Burundi, only 60 percent of births are registered.[17]

1.2.2 Protection against discrimination[18]

  • Some disadvantaged children (Batwa, orphans, children born outside of marriage, abandoned children, ex-combatants, teenage mothers, children affected or infected by HIV and AIDS…), face discrimination from the community and exclusion from access to health or education services.
  • Given stigma and social isolation facing them, these children (mentioned in the previous point) may suffer emotionally and internalize the discrimination facing them.

1.2.3 Consideration and respect of children’s best interests and voice in decisions affecting their lives[19]

  • Often, vulnerable children have poor relations with their parents and are unable to negotiate effectively for their rights
  • In community structures and government, children – particularly those who are economically or socially vulnerable – lack space to assert their interests or claim their rights.

1.2.4 Rights to life and healthy development and freedom from neglect, abuse and exploitation[20]

  • Children normally face physical violence as a form of punishment at home and in schools.
  • Vulnerable children – particularly girls and those living in the streets – are at risk of sexual exploitation, leading toincreased risk of contracting HIV and AIDS and unwanted pregnancies.
  • Some children – particularly those living with HIV and AIDS, orphans and street children – are socially isolated from others and do not receive the emotional or social support that they need for healthy development.
  • Facing marginalization and struggling for viable livelihoods opportunities, some children – particularly those in the streets – turn to violence, drugs or alcohol.[21]
  • Orphans easily find themselves in exploitative relationships with their guardians, leading to loss of inheritance and, at times, situations of economic exploitation.
  • Many economically or socially vulnerable children lack access to education. In Burundi, over half of orphans and other vulnerable children are out of school.[22]One in three primary school entrants in Burundi drop out before grade five.[23]
  • Many girls, children born to single mothers, batwa children and orphans do not have or lose access to land or assets.
  • Many marginalized children do not benefit from the knowledge and skills offered from education, and the most vulnerable enter into exploitative labor at a young age. UNICEF estimates that 19 percent of children in Burundi, aged five to 14, are engaged in child labor.[24]
  • No specialized education services, materials or infrastructure are accessible for children with disabilities or older children who have missed years of education.
  • A number of vulnerable children, particularly those living on the street, are trafficked into combat, domestic work and commercial sexual exploitation. While the exact numbers of trafficked children are not known, in 2003, UNICEF listed Burundi as one of the top ten countries of origin of trafficked children from Africa .[25]

1.2.5 Justice system that promotes a child’s dignity and development[26]

  • Many children remain unaware of their rights or resources available to them.
  • Disadvantaged children do not have avenues available to them in order to seek justice for rights abuses.
  • Children accused of crimes generally do not have the knowledge or skills to defend themselves in court and are not granted legal counsel.
  • Police and courts are often not sensitive to children’s rights or needs and children in the justice system often face violence, abuse and corruption.
  • The juvenile justice system in Burundi has not yet been implemented.[27]

Viewed from a different lens, rights denials facing children fall across aspects of agency, relations and structures in their lives.[28] These dimensions reinforce and build on one another to perpetuate children’s poverty and vulnerability.

While CARE’s research has identified these typical patterns and layers of exclusion and vulnerability, we must also recognize that not all children – even in the same categories – will face the same rights abuses. Even among those that do face the same abuses, they may experience them in vastly different ways. As we work, we must remain sensitive and aware of the diversity among children, and how what we do may affect them differently.

2. Underlying causes: What key drivers perpetuate poverty and vulnerability among children and youth?

While it is critical to understand how children’s rights are denied, in order to go beyond treating the symptoms we must also ask ourselves, why do these rights abuses occur? What perpetuates them? And how?

For the past year, CARE Burundi has returned to these questions across its work. Through literature review, focus group discussions, appreciative inquiry, interviews and experiences in the field, staff teams identified three key underlying and intermediate causes of poverty: traditional systems of hierarchy, poor governance and overpopulation. The teams also identified conflict as a key cross-cutting issue that aggravates the effects of each driver of poverty and vulnerability.

2.1 Traditional Hierarchy and the Cultural Marginalization of Children

2.1.1 Status of Children in Burundian Society

In Burundian culture, while there is a deep love and value for children, a strong sense of hierarchy separates them from adults. Traditionally, children are not allowed to eat certain foods, like eggs or meat. In public ceremonies, youth must sit separately from elders and do not have a voice in community meetings. A number of local proverbs reinforce traditional views of children:

Wotana n’umwana atagukuta akaguturira – With the force that you expend to warm up to a child, he/she eventually burns you.

Nta jambo, ry’umwana – the child has no words (what children say is neither consistent nor important. Nothing a child says has value.)

Given these views, child-rearing practices tend to emphasize discipline and punishment rather than protection of children’s rights. In this system, corporal punishment is an accepted and normal form of discipline for children and continues to be commonly used by parents and teachers. Furthermore, many parents believe that rights protection is a government responsibility, and their role is simply to send their children to school or other government services. Most do not actively engage in the management or oversight of institutions concerning their children, even with the presence of parent committees to interact with schools.[29]

In both schools and at home, the strong cultural taboo around discussions of sexual relations makes many parents and teachers unprepared or opposed to teaching sexual and reproductive health, leaving children unaware of how to protect themselves against HIV and AIDS and unwanted pregnancy. This taboo presents a risk for children, as both parents and children acknowledge that they have their first sexual relations between the ages of 11 and 13.[30]

As a result of these norms and practices, a CARE study found that children felt their interests and voice have been neglected, both in decisions in household management or other matters concerning their lives.[31]Furthermore, children’s lack of voice and low status within communities also make it difficult for them to seek protection or promote their interests within the community or law. Levels of neglect and exclusion among children are further amplified by other cultural beliefs concerning gender, family and ethnicity.

2.1.2 Gender Norms and Discrimination

Within households, girls are generally less valued in comparison to boys. At birth, while boys are greeted as the pillars of the household (igikingi c’irembo), girls are regarded as the dew (umwana w’urume), who depart the home early in their lives to join their husbands. In the household, girls are expected to take responsibility over household chores that prepare them for their future roles as wives: cooking meals, fetching firewood, carrying water, caring for infants and processing grains.

As the patrilineal heritage passes from father to son, only boys within the family have rights to family inheritance of land or cows. As a result, girls rely on marriage for both economic viability and social acceptance. Within this system, households see little value in investing in girls in terms of education, as they are expected to grow up to leave the family to take positions in the domestic sphere.

With a government decree making primary education free, the enrollment rate for girls is high compared to other developing countries (54 percent, as opposed to 60 percent of boys), with comparable promotion and retention rates at the primary level (58 and 45 percent respectively).[32] While in school, however, the curriculum and classroom practices reinforce traditional gender roles. Furthermore, in a study of four schools in Gitega Province, CARE found that girls increasingly take greater household responsibilities compared to boys starting at the age of ten. During that time, while boys retain their space for studies and recreation, girls spend most of their time on domestic duties and their time to build informal social networks or study diminishes.[33]As a result, girls gain less information, skills or social networks that could prepare them against poverty and vulnerability.

The cultural acceptance of sexual violence against women and the belief that girls cannot negotiate or terminate sexual relations with men also creates an environment where school can be a site of sexual abuse. Reports by NTURENGAHO, a local association involved in the prevention of sexual violence, indicate that 60% of assisted young girls that are still in school have experienced sexual violence or exploitation for access to education or improved school grades. Perpetrators cited for committing such actions are teachers, school directors and classmates. This practice often results in school drop-outs due to undesired pregnancies, as well as the reduction in school performance amongst girls.[34]Given the stigma surrounding single mothers, girls who become pregnant are often forced to marry, despite the existence of a Family Code that limits the marriageable age for girls to 18 and above. As a result of the stigma associated with pregnancy outside of wedlock, few young mothers return to their studies after giving birth.

Only 12 percent of girls (and 16 percent of boys) who graduate from primary school go on to attend secondary school[35]. Beyond pregnancy, reasons for not continuing studies include household demands upon girls to oversee domestic chores or begin work, failure to pass the sixth grade exam, and family arrangements for bride price and marriage.

2.1.3 Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children[P2]

In addition to gender, the traditional system of inheritance and polygamy can leave other children vulnerable, particularly orphans or children born to single or divorced parents.

Extended family systems traditionally support orphans. Children are viewed not simply as members of a household, but members of a larger clan, as confirmed by the proverb ‘Ni Abacu’ (the children are ours). However, since the war, these practices eroded under the combination of insecurity and poverty facing households. During the conflict, households were pushed into insecurity and poverty, and many were unable to meet their own basic needs, much less care for orphans and other vulnerable children. As a result, many orphans find themselves without social or economic support networks and twenty percent live in child-headed households.[36]

In addition, CARE research identified a number of other children as particularly vulnerable to the abuse, denial and violation of rights:

  • Children who are born to single mothers often have no claims to inheritance of productive assets without the support of a father. Furthermore, they also face discrimination from communities as they were born outside of marriage. As a result, the birth of children to single mothers are often neither registered nor celebrated.With no official citizenship within Burundi, unregistered children may not attend school and face difficulties accessing health care. In marriage, children whose fathers are unknown face further difficulties as they cannot marry until their clan membership is determined (in order to avoid intra-clan marriages). Since girls in this situation represent a source of labor and brideprice, it is easier for them to be claimed by fathers, as opposed to boys. [37]
  • Children of ‘abandoned women’, or women (often in polygamous relationships) who have been left by their husbands, may be separated from their mothers to be raised by their step-mother in order to stay in the family. A CARE study on marriage found that these children often live in conflict with their step-mothers and half-siblings. With a lower status in the household, children of abandoned women face greater violence, in addition to poorer health and nutrition.[38]
  • Children affected or infected by HIV and AIDS also face discrimination because of the shame associated with the virus. Many children are forbidden to play with children affected by HIV and AIDS and households caring for children affected by HIV and AIDS sometimes force them to eat and sleep separately from others. Furthermore, these children have special health needs and many are also orphans, themselves.[39]
  • Batwa children face discrimination from communities. Traditionally, the Batwa have no access to land and are not allowed to share or even sell food to other ethnicities. Segregation and discrimination exclude them from access to their rights and services as equal citizens[P3].

2.1.4 Cycle of Poverty and Exclusion

For these children – girls, child-mothers, orphans, children of abandoned or single women, and those affected by HIV and AIDS – stigma marginalizes them from society and social support. The combination of poverty, lack of education, no parental guidance, few income-earning opportunities and lack of access to land can push them to sell labor, beg or steal in order to survive. Many migrate to urban or peri-urban areas; some fall into drug addiction or alcoholism. Without social networks, and given their lower status as minors, these children may become vulnerable to economic exploitation and are exposed to high rates of abuse. Vulnerable girls are also more susceptible to early marriage[40], sexual exploitation and harassment. Furthermore, girls who migrate to cities for work often return to face discrimination within their rural home communities. A study by Peter Uvin found that across Burundi, people described migrant women and girls as lazy, morally weak and sexually promiscuous. As one man described,