CRANK Research Tracker
The CRANK’s Research Tracker is a curated resource with details of ongoing and upcoming research by CRANK members. Use it to avoid duplicating research, and to identify priority research areas.
Find out more about intervention approaches / research themes
Education and life skills: focus on increasing girls’ enrolment, retention and completion of quality education and transition to work, increasing the perceived value of girls’ education. Delivered through schools or associated programmes. E.g. cash and in-kind transfers for education, targeted and tailored life skills for girls, capacity enhancement for teachers.
Gender and social norms: focus on engaging with individuals, families, communities and institutions to challenge discriminatory norms and promote gender equality, including around girls’ sexuality, economic roles and safety. E.g. discussion groups, community dialogues, male engagement, media and communication interventions.
Girl-focused approaches: focus on girls’ skills development, confidence building and support structures; promoting their rights, wellbeing and gender equality; and increasing alternatives to marriage. This may be through, access to education, health care, economic opportunities and decision-making. E.g. safe spaces, life skills sessions, savings start-ups.
Health - maternal and child, public health crises and broader health: focus on broader health to address maternal/child health, public health crises. E.g. COVID-19, Ebola.
Health - mental health and psychosocial support: focus on addressing mental health conditions related with child marriage. Mental health is an individual’s ability to cope and state of wellbeing in which they can build relationships and realise their own aspirations.
Health - sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR): focus on safe and healthy sexual behaviour, and access to services. E.g. comprehensive sexuality education, health and information services around prevention of unintended pregnancy, gender based violence, female genital mutilation / cutting and access to contraception.
Income and economic strengthening: focus on alleviating poverty and contributing to inclusive economic growth. E.g. cash transfers and economic incentives (to delay marriage and keep girls in school), social assistance, vocational training, favourable job markets.
Laws and policies: focus on reforms to establish girls’ and women’s rights, including through setting the minimum age of marriage at 18 years and ensuring access to justice. E.g. Legal support and advocacy, establishing gender-transformative family, property and inheritance laws, strengthening birth and marriage registration, ensuring access to child protection, education, sexual and reproductive rights and protection from gender-based violence.
Systems strengthening: focus on improving the capacity, efficiency and effectiveness of policies and services. Promoting cross-sectoral collaboration and coordination – including in health, education and social protection – to improve outcomes and impact for girls and women. E.g. capacity enhancement, policy and regulatory reforms, service delivery.
Showing 246 results.
Socio-ecological factors of girl child marriage: a meta-synthesis of qualitative research
Summary & Objectives This meta-synthesis synthesises qualitative evidence published between 2000 and 2022 to identify the socio-ecological drivers of girl child marriage across diverse settings. Drawing on 34 qualitative studies…
CRANK Research Spotlight: Education interventions to address child marriage and support married girls
Objectives In 2011, the WHO published a set of guidelines on preventing early pregnancy and poor reproductive outcomes in adolescents. In 2023, they commissioned a review of the evidence to…
Working with the Grain: Nonconfrontational pathways to Normative Change. Convergence of Interests and Latent Drivers.
Conventional approaches to social transformation posit that transforming social exclusion into social inclusion involves challenging the status quo and power relations.
Work carried out by the Mobilising for Development (M4D)…
The causal effect of early marriage on women’s bargaining power: Evidence from Bangladesh
Summary & Objectives The study aimed to estimate the causal effect of age at marriage on women’s bargaining power in rural Bangladesh. It sought to measure how delaying marriage affects…
A protocol for a controlled, pre-post intervention study to change attitudes toward child marriage in Southwestern Nigeria using targeted radio programming
Background Child marriage hinders progress toward population health and development goals. Cost effective interventions that address the root causes of child marriage are needed to speed progress toward ending the…
Trends in child marriage, sexual violence, early sexual intercourse and the challenges for policy interventions to meet the sustainable development goals
Summary & Objectives The study aimed to describe changes in the prevalence of child marriage, sexual violence and early sexual intercourse in low- and middle-income countries between 1990 and 2020.…
Are existing laws on child, early and forced marriages and unions working for adolescent girls and young women? Position statement and recommendations
Summary & Objectives The position statement seeks to examine whether existing laws on child, early and forced marriages and unions are effectively protecting adolescent girls and young women and advancing…
"Can't live willingly": Exploring how early marriage and early pregnancy affect experiences of pregnancy in South Asia
In South Asia, early marriage has been associated with a range of adverse outcomes during pregnancy and infancy. This may partly be explained by early marriage leading to a younger…
Scope, range and effectiveness of interventions to address social norms to prevent and delay child marriage and empower adolescent girls: A systematic review
Summary & Objectives The paper aimed to assess the scope, range and effectiveness of interventions that seek to shift social norms to prevent or delay child marriage and empower adolescent…
How Adolescent Girls Persuaded Local Government to Allocate Official Budget for Girls’ Programming - Tipping Point, Nepal.
In the Rupandehi and Kapilvastu districts of Nepal, adolescent girls from 11 Municipalities successfully secured funds from the local government after advocating for themselves through Girls’ Rights Forums (GRFs). CARE’s…
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Child marriage atlas
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