Updated research gaps on ending child Open Access marriage and supporting married girls for 2020– 2030
Objectives
The paper aims to review progress in the evidence base on child marriage since the 2015 research agenda and to identify updated research gaps for 2020-2030. It seeks to set priorities across four domains: prevalence and determinants, consequences, intervention effectiveness, and implementation research on ending child marriage and supporting married girls. It also aims to propose ways to strengthen research coordination, translation, and uptake so that evidence more effectively informs policies and programmes
Findings
The authors find that evidence on child marriage has expanded substantially in the last two decades, with clearer data on prevalence, trends, and key drivers such as poverty, gendered social norms, and limited opportunities for girls. They note strong evidence on some protective factors, especially girls’ secondary education, but highlight gaps in sub-national analyses, links with macro-level change, and evidence on certain consequences, including economic and mental health outcomes and impacts in humanitarian settings. The paper shows that, while some interventions such as education-linked cash transfers and livelihood support have promising effects, there remain major gaps on cost, cost-effectiveness, scalability, and how best to reach the most marginalised girls, as well as weak systems for coordinating research, building local research capacity, and translating findings for decision-makers.
Recommendations
The authors recommend a focused global and country learning agenda that prioritises filling the most critical evidence gaps on child marriage and on support for married girls, including more sub-national analyses, life-course consequences, and rigorous evaluations of single and multi-component interventions. They call for stronger implementation research on delivery platforms, integration with other sectors and issues, financing needs, and the role of civil society in scaling effective approaches. They further recommend establishing research consortia and country mechanisms to align priorities with national needs, linking programme funding to embedded research, investing in research capacity in low- and middle-income countries, and improving knowledge translation through open access publishing, user-friendly products, and structured platforms for sharing evidence with policymakers and practitioners.
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