Girls’ sexuality and child, early, and forced marriages and unions: A conceptual framework

This conceptual framework is intended to support advocacy and more coherent and effective programming to prevent child marriage and advance adolescent girls’ rights and agency. It sets out in visual and narrative forms the rationale for investment in programming that centres on control of adolescent girls’ sexuality – which is a core manifestation of gender inequality – as a root cause of child, early and forced marriages and unions (CEFMU). It also provides programming principles to guide the design of gender-transformative approaches that promote adolescent girls’ sexual rights and bodily autonomy as a pathway to ending CEFMU.

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