Citation

Muthengi E, Olum R, Chandra-Mouli V. J. Adolesc. Health 2021; 69(6S): S1-S3.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.09.018

PMID

34809893

Abstract

Child marriage continues to be an important public health and social challenge even in the 21st century. Globally, approximately 12 million girls are married as children annually and, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was estimated that over 120 million additional girls would be married as children by 2030 if programs to prevent child marriage are not accelerated. Sub-Saharan Africa carries the greatest prevalence of child marriage, with approximately 35% of women married before the age of 18, followed by South Asia with nearly 30%. Although child marriage rates are declining globally, the decline is uneven across regions, between countries and within countries. The greatest reductions have been observed in South Asia and the least in sub-Saharan Africa, but the situation could well be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which threatens to slow down progress. Child marriage has far-reaching impacts. Low- and middle-income countries are estimated to lose trillions of dollars because of child marriage by 2030, the date set by the Sustainable Development Goals for the elimination of the practice.

There has been a huge increase in research and in concerted program implementation efforts to prevent child marriage; as a result, a range of effective interventions have been identified. However, more needs to be done to ensure that proven interventions are appropriately selected to match local contexts and implemented at scale with quality and equity to achieve the desired impacts.

Language: en