The Global State of Evidence on Interventions to Prevent Child Marriage

This brief examines the global state of evidence on interventions to prevent child marriage.

Conclusion

Although progress has been made toward building an evidence base on what works to prevent child marriage, greater effort is needed to systematically ascertain which interventions are successful or unsuccessful in delaying child marriage and for which subgroups of girls these interventions work.

Concrete knowledge of what works to delay child marriage is needed to scale up interventions so that more girls benefit. In a context of scarce resources and competing priorities, investments in ending child marriage need to be channeled into proven and cost-effective interventions. Doing so will allow more girls to delay marriage, finish their education, and maximize their ability to contribute productively to society.