Preventing and responding to child marriage in humanitarian settings: The global Programme Approach

Objectives

This factsheet aims to describe how the UNFPA–UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage addresses child marriage in humanitarian settings. It outlines the scale and drivers of child marriage in crises, summarises existing evidence and programming experiences, and sets out key approaches for preparedness, prevention, resilience building, response and coordination across the humanitarian- development–peace nexus.

Findings

The factsheet shows that humanitarian crises often intensify the drivers of child marriage, including insecurity, violence, school closures, service disruptions, poverty and weakened social support, leading families to use child marriage as a coping strategy for economic survival, protection or preserving honour. It highlights that effective prevention and response require multi-sectoral action linking child protection, GBV, health, education and social protection systems, and that programmes must work through and strengthen existing government and humanitarian structures rather than create parallel systems.

It reports growing but still limited evidence on child marriage in humanitarian settings and notes gaps in understanding programmatic effectiveness, differences between conflict and climate emergencies, and the needs of married, divorced and widowed girls and child grooms. The factsheet also finds that promising approaches include investing in preparedness, building resilience of girls and families, using safe spaces and life skills programmes, engaging religious and community leaders, supporting women-led organisations, and improving coordination between clusters and across regions to share learning and scale good practice.

Summary

This factsheet explains how child marriage increases and changes in humanitarian crises and how the UNFPA–UNICEF Global Programme works to prevent and respond to it in these contexts. It shows that conflict, displacement, disasters and epidemics deepen poverty, insecurity and service disruptions, which push families to marry girls early as a perceived form of protection or survival. The document outlines current evidence, highlights promising practices across sectors and stresses the need to link humanitarian action with longer term systems strengthening.

Purpose

The purpose of the factsheet is to guide governments, UN agencies and partners on how to address child marriage more effectively in humanitarian settings. It aims to clarify why child marriage must be integrated into preparedness, response and recovery plans and to promote coordinated, multi-sectoral approaches that connect child protection, GBV, health, education and social protection. It also seeks to inform future programming and research by identifying evidence gaps and priority areas for action.

Audience

Target audiences include:

• UN agencies and international NGOs involved in humanitarian response and child protection programming.
• Government ministries and national authorities responsible for child protection, gender, social protection, education and health in crisis-affected countries.
• Humanitarian coordination structures and clusters, especially child protection, GBV, health, education and social protection actors
• Regional bodies and global partners engaged in frameworks and research on child marriage in humanitarian settings