Systematic scoping review of interventions to prevent and respond to child marriage across Africa: Progress, gaps and priorities
Summary & Objectives
The paper aimed to map and describe interventions to prevent and respond to child marriage across Africa, showing where and how they have been implemented. It sought to categorise interventions by approach, region and target population, and to identify gaps in evidence and priorities for future research and programming.
Findings
The review identified 132 intervention studies, with most work concentrated in Eastern Africa and in a small group of countries such as Ethiopia and Malawi. Interventions focused mainly on prevention rather than supporting married girls, and health and empowerment approaches were most common, followed by education and laws and policies, while norms and livelihoods approaches were least represented. There were few high-quality impact evaluations, especially beyond cash transfer programmes, and substantial gaps in evidence for Middle Africa and other high-prevalence but under-researched countries, compounded by the dominance of English-language publications.
Recommendations
The authors recommend strengthening evaluative evidence on empowerment, livelihoods and norms-change interventions, including more rigorous designs and clearer measures of empowerment and social norms. They call for more country-specific and language-diverse research in neglected subregions, better monitoring and enforcement of laws, and interventions that address girls’ lives holistically across health, education, economic opportunities and rights. They also highlight the need for implementation research to support adaptation and scale-up of promising models and to ensure that efforts to prevent and respond to child marriage prioritise girls’ autonomy and well-being.
Share your research
You can share details of your ongoing and upcoming research to be included in the CRANKs online research tracker. By doing this, you are contributing to a coordinated, harmonised global research agenda.