Strategies to End Child Marriage in the Horn of Africa region: Literature Review

Objectives

Commissioned by Girls Not Brides in Oct 2023, the review aimed to:

(1) map current actors and interventions tackling child marriage in Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan & Sudan; (

2) assess the strength of evidence on effectiveness;

(3) identify gaps and priority actions for funders and implementers; and

(4) generate country-specific roadmaps to guide coordinated responses.

A mixed-method search combined systematic reviews, academic case studies, humanitarian guidelines, and grey literature up to Oct 2024

Findings

• Drivers: marriage decisions are shaped by conflict-related displacement, economic shocks, patriarchal norms, and limited education opportunities.

• Evidence gaps: Only Ethiopia has rigorously evaluated, multi-component programmes; for the other three countries documentation is sparse.

• Promising practices: community-based social-norm change, girl asset-building clubs, cash-for-education, and integration of CEFMU into child-protection clusters.

• Key barrier: humanitarian strategies rarely include explicit child-marriage objectives, leaving married girls invisible in crisis responses.

Recommendations

1. Invest flexible, multi-year funding in women-led, community organisations to deliver context-specific solutions.

2. Embed CEFMU indicators and referral pathways in all humanitarian response plans.

3. Scale and rigorously evaluate integrated, multi-sector packages (education + SRHR + livelihoods).

4. Prioritise research on effective programming in Somalia, Sudan & South Sudan, including conflict settings.