Child marriage in conflict- and crisis-affected settings: Evidence and practice

Objectives

Child marriage is a global issue. It is rooted in gender inequality and affects millions of girls and women around the world. Its drivers – including poverty, social norms, insecurity and lack of education – vary by context, and are exacerbated by conflict and crisis.

Given the scale and complexity of child marriage and its consequences, a coordinated, adequately funded, community-based response from state- and non-state actors is needed across the humanitarian, development and peace nexus.

What this report is, and who it is for

In this report, you will find:

An exploration of the causes and consequences of child marriage in conflict- and crisis-affected settings, drawing on recent evidence.

Examples of promising research and practice – including from Girls Not Brides member organisations and partners – within and across key sectors:

Income and economic strengthening interventions

Education and life skills interventions

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

Mental health

Girl-centred interventions and empowerment approaches

Gender and social norms

Laws and marriage/birth registration policies

Women's rights organisations and movements

A spotlight on gender-transformative approaches to child marriage programming.

Recommendations to better equip local, national and international actors to prevent and respond to child marriage in these settings.

Practical tools to support the implementation of evidence-based action.

This report is designed to support anyone working to prevent and respond to child marriage in conflict- and crisis-affected settings, and advocates for a fundamental shift in how we approach child marriage programming in these contexts.

Findings

Risk factors for child marriage increase significantly in conflict- and crisis-affected settings. In states considered fragile, average child marriage prevalence is 35%, compared to 19% globally.[i] This is because core drivers of child marriage and GBV more broadly – including social norms that uphold patriarchal systems and gender inequality – are exacerbated by stress and uncertainty. They are compounded by the breakdown of individual, formal and customary support systems.[ii]

Adolescent girls are at increased risk of child marriage across different forms of crisis, including conflict, climate emergencies, displacement, pandemics and acute economic and food insecurity.[iii] Where these forms of crisis overlap, or where girls face multiple intersecting forms of marginalisation – for example, refugee girls with a disability – risks of child marriage increase further, and girls are less likely to access support once married.

Child marriage is connected with many other thematic areas and rights, including gender inequality, poor educational access and outcomes, poor livelihood opportunities, limited access to health rights and services, and poor access to social protection.[iv] Despite this interconnectedness, child marriage prevention is rarely adequately prioritised within humanitarian or crisis response systems, and the unique and specific needs of girls and adolescents who are – or have been – married (ever-married girls), pregnant and parenting are often unrecognised and unmet.

Recommendations: Evidence-based actions for all actors

Drawing on the evidence, we call for:

Urgent action at all levels to better understand, recognise and respond to the needs of girls and adolescent girls – unmarried and ever-married – to prevent and respond to child marriage in conflict- and crisis-affected settings.

Interventions that take a girl-centred and gender-transformative approach.

Approaches that amplify community/place-based expertise and the expertise of civil society organisations, frontline women’s rights and feminist organisations, and child rights organisations.

Recommendations

Here are six actions for governments, UN agencies & cluster leads, governments, donors, civil society organisations and researchers to address child marriage in conflict- and crisis-affected settings:

Integrate child marriage prevention and response as a priority across all actors and sectors within the humanitarian architecture. Recognise it as a complex issue requiring change across sectors and levels. Support this with funded efforts to improve cross-sector coordination, collaboration and monitoring at all levels, with governments positioned to drive and coordinate change at the national and sub-national levels.

Address the structural and institutional barriers that impact the provision of key systems and services – including girls’ access to education and SRHR – as part of a political commitment to addressing the structural drivers of child marriage and rights of refugees and displaced persons to access critical services.

Design, deliver and evaluate multi-sector, multi-component interventions that recognise the huge and catalytic potential of engaging in key sectors – like education – to prevent and respond to child marriage in conflict- and crisis-affected settings.

Increase funding to and integration of girl-centred and – where possible – girl-designed interventions. Engage at-risk and ever-married, pregnant and parenting girls and adolescents, and work in collaboration with families and communities to build support and trust on key issues, including SRHR.

Commit to multi-year funding for gender-transformative interventions and to pilot promising approaches, including robust measurement, evaluation and learning to build the evidence base. This commitment to building the evidence base should be integrated across all child marriage interventions – including community/place-based and community-led (with appropriate adaptation) interventions – to ensure ongoing learning and appropriate scaling of promising interventions in different contexts.

Increase funding to women-led and community/place-based organisations. Integrate these organisations as equitable partners – and as thematic and context experts and funding recipients – from the design phase of interventions and within key national and international decision-making fora.