Technical note on partnering with men and boys to end child marriage in the Global Programme to End Child Marriage.

Summary

This technical note explains why partnering with men and boys is essential to ending child marriage and advancing gender equality. It outlines how harmful masculinities and patriarchal norms shape marriage practices and sustain child marriage, and synthesises evidence on what works to shift these norms. The document then describes gender-transformative ways to involve men and boys at individual, school, community and policy levels, emphasising that their engagement must complement, not replace, work that centres and empowers girls.

Purpose

The purpose of the note is to provide practitioners in the UNFPA–UNICEF Global Programme with a clear conceptual framework and practical guidance on engaging men and boys to end child marriage. It seeks to harmonise understanding of key concepts such as masculinities and male engagement, share promising practices from different countries, and guide programme design so that work with men and boys is genuinely gender-transformative, accountable to women and girls, and integrated into broader efforts to prevent child marriage.

Audience

The target audience includes:

• Programme staff and implementing partners of the UNFPA–UNICEF Global Programme who design and deliver interventions to prevent child marriage, especially those working on gender-transformative programming and male engagement.
• Government ministries and national stakeholders involved in gender, youth, education, health, child protection and social development sectors who are responsible for policy and system-level responses.
• Civil society organisations, community-based organisations and women- and youth-led groups that work directly with communities and engage men and boys in norm-change initiatives.
• Humanitarian and development actors integrating gender-transformative approaches and child-marriage prevention into multi-sectoral programming.