Successful multisectoral and multilevel approaches to address child marriage

Objectives

The study aims to synthesise emerging evidence on how multisectoral and multilevel approaches can effectively delay child marriage and support adolescent girls. It seeks to shift attention from diagnosing the problem toward understanding which programmatic and policy interventions work, how they work, and under what conditions. The brief reviews recent evaluations, highlights persistent evidence gaps, particularly in humanitarian and under-researched regions, and provides practical insights to inform stronger, coordinated programming at the individual, community, systems and policy levels.

Findings

The evidence shows that multisectoral programmes, those combining interventions across education, health, SRHR, economic empowerment, social norms change and legal or policy action, can reduce child marriage and improve outcomes for adolescent girls, especially when implemented over several years and adapted to local context. Several evaluated programmes, such as Her Choice, Yes I Do, AGI-K, Marriage: No Child’s Play, and the Keeping Girls in School initiative, demonstrated reductions in child marriage, improvements in school enrolment, greater access to SRHR services, and shifts in gender attitudes. The strongest effects were often seen among the most marginalised girls, particularly those out of school at baseline.

However, the results also reveal considerable variation across countries. Social norms change remains difficult to achieve within short programme cycles, economic interventions show mixed effects, and SRHR components depend heavily on provider and mentor comfort in delivering sensitive content. Evidence from large-scale systems interventions, such as Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme, suggests that social protection schemes can indirectly delay marriage when combined with complementary “cash-plus” components.

Overall, the study finds that while multisectoral and multilevel approaches hold promise, the evidence base remains thin compared with research on prevalence and drivers

Summary

The Research Spotlight reviews recent evidence on multisectoral and multilevel approaches to prevent child marriage and support adolescent girls. It shifts focus from describing the problem to examining which programmes work, how they work, and for whom. It draws on evaluations from 2021–2022 of alliances and initiatives such as Her Choice, Yes I Do, More Than Brides, AGI-K in Kenya, Keeping Girls in School in Bangladesh, Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme, and the WISH SRHR programme.

Across these studies, programmes that combine interventions at multiple levels; girls’ skills and schooling, community norms, SRHR services, economic support, and laws and policies, can reduce child marriage and sometimes adolescent pregnancy, especially among the most marginalised girls and those out of school at baseline. They also improve school enrolment, knowledge and use of SRHR services, and gender-equitable attitudes. However, results vary by context, social norms change is slow, economic components show mixed effects, and SRHR gains often depend on how comfortable frontline workers are delivering sensitive content.

The Spotlight concludes that multisectoral and multilevel approaches are promising but still under-evaluated compared with research on prevalence and drivers. It calls for more investment in impact and implementation research, especially in humanitarian settings and under-researched regions such as parts of Latin America and Francophone Africa, and for better use of large-scale government programmes and policy reforms to achieve change at scale.

Purpose

The brief aims to summarise the latest evidence on multisectoral and multilevel approaches to addressing child marriage. It highlights what recent programme evaluations reveal about effective strategies, identifies where evidence remains limited, and provides insights to guide stronger intervention design, coordination and investment across sectors and levels

Audience

The brief is intended for policymakers, donors, practitioners, programme designers, and researchers working on child marriage, adolescent girls’ wellbeing, gender equality, SRHR, education, social protection and child protection.