Research Spotlight: Gender-transformative and systems approaches to ending child marriage and promoting girls’ rights

Summary

This Research Spotlight (RS) brings together key take aways and promising practice implications from the evidence and experience shared during the first two global research meetings of the Child Marriage Research to Action Network (the CRANK) in 2021on gender-transformative approaches to ending child marriage, and systems approaches to upholding girls’ rights and delaying age of marriage

Purpose

This RS includes key takeaways and promising practice implications for gender transformative, and systems approaches to ending child marriage and promoting girls’ rights from five featured studies

1. CARE Tipping Point in Bangladesh and Nepal and their practical guidelines to understand and evaluate the social norms that perpetuate child marriage and limit girls’ agency, and identify programmatic pathways to transform them

2. Ethiopia’s Health Extension Programme working with Health Extension Workers targeting girls in rural areas: its positive impact on multiple gender equality outcomes, including lower child marriage and early pregnancy, higher school enrolment and programmatic learning, including: the ‘added value’ of female Health Extension Workers; the potential for transformative change at scale through a systems-level approach for comprehensive gender responsive and youth-friendly health and SRH services and awareness

3. School to work transition for adolescent girls Study highlighting key barriers, and short-term and longer-term policy interventions needed both to mitigate the impact of structural inequalities and promote structural change to systems and social norms for girls to exercise their rights

4. Mexico’s Yo Quiero Yo Puedo gender transformative community and systems-based approach – a rights-based approach to gender and sexuality education inside and outside of schools; girl- and community-led advocacy to improve the provision of health, education and other public services; mass media campaigns to raise the profile of the under addressed issue of informal unions and child marriage - promotes the rights of girls, adolescents, and women working at all levels of the socio-ecological model for sustainable change.

5. A study commissioned by Population Council of the More Than Brides Alliance “Marriage: No Child’s Play” (MNCP) multisectoral programme implemented in India, Mali, Malawi and Niger which explores behavioural outcomes related to child marriage, schooling, work and pregnancy.

And recommendations for further reading on these topics, supporting evidence-based uptake.

Audience

Practitioners, policy makers, advocates, researchers and donors.