250 girls share child marriage experiences in new report
New research from Plan International reveals how child marriage places girls at risk of violence and robs them of life opportunities.
Child marriage
We work to end child marriage so adolescent girls can choose if or when to marry or have children, stay in school and shape their own futures.
We won’t stop until we are all equal.
Child marriage remains one of the worst child rights violations and the most entrenched form of gender inequality worldwide. UNICEF data shows that around 12 million girls are married before the age of 18 each year.
Across the globe, girls are facing more risks and fewer choices. Crisis, conflict and climate change all disproportionately affect girls and are some of the key causes of child marriage.
Child, early and forced marriage and unions have been an area of focus for Plan International for many decades. As the world around us changes, we continue to carry out programmes and influencing work globally. We won’t stop standing fiercely beside girls, defending the hard-won progress they’ve made and demanding the change they still urgently need to end the practice.
On this page all types of child, early and forced marriage and unions will be referred to as child marriage as this is the commonly used and widely understood term. However, Plan International’s preferred term is ‘child, early and forced marriage or union’ to reflect current UN terminology and include informal unions.
For more information on our position on child marriage, download our global policy on child, early and forced marriages and unions.
How Plan is working to end child marriage
Our holistic approach to ending child marriage prevents and responds to the harmful practice, tackling its root causes and supporting married girls with access to the information, support and services they need.
Because of the multiple and complex factors that contribute to child marriage, our work in this area is diverse and links to other areas of our work such as:
- Sexual and reproductive health and rights
- Protection from violence
- Education
- Economic empowerment
- Early childhood development
- Girls’ rights and gender equality
- Humanitarian response.
#EndChildMarriage
Child marriage steals girls’ childhoods and shuts down their futures.
Led by girls, the #EndChildMarriage campaign is about amplifying their voices and dismantling the harmful norms that force them into child marriages.
Work alongside communities
Some of the ways we are working alongside children, young people and their communities to end child marriage include:
- Creating lasting changes in attitudes to child marriage by working with entire communities to raise awareness of the harmful consequences of child marriage and transform harmful gender norms.
- Facilitating and promoting girls’ education including for married girls.
- Linking girls and young women to vocational skills, business and livelihoods training.
- Increasing access to comprehensive sexuality education and sexual and reproductive health and rights services to reduce unintended adolescent pregnancies (which can lead to child marriage).
- Supporting married girls and survivors of child marriage.
- Setting up child protection committees that assist in preventing child marriages.
- Supporting girls to understand their rights and be part of efforts to end child marriage.
- Supporting families to earn money so they are not reliant on dowries paid for their daughters’ marriage.
- Supporting the creation of ‘child marriage-free zones’; which are a declaration and commitment made by communities not to allow child marriage to take place in their area.
- Raising awareness of the increased risk of child marriage during crises.
- Training male gender equality champions to model positive gender norms and help end gender inequality in their communities.
- Using mobile teams to travel to remote areas to support girls from marginalised communities who are more at risk of child marriage.
Let me be a child, not a wife
Hear the voices of 251 girls and young women from 15 countries as they share their personal stories of child marriage and its lasting impact in our new State of the World’s Girls research report.
Young people as leaders of change
Young people are central to the movement to end child marriage. Our programmes ensure children – particularly girls – take the lead, are meaningfully involved in the process and are empowered to claim their rights.
We support them to gain advocacy and activism skills, learn about their rights and access platforms so they can engage decision-makers in their schools, communities and regions.
We facilitate peer-to-peer networks and train young mentors to build networks that help girls support each other to say no to child marriage.
Policy, research and technology
We use our presence in political spaces and strong strategic partnerships to advocate and influence policy and legal reform at national, regional and global level, including setting a minimum age of marriage at 18 without exception.
We were part of efforts to create the first ever UN resolution on ending child marriage and have continued to engage in multi-stakeholder efforts to drive progress to end this harmful practice.
Through research and engaging with youth in the development of projects, we ensure they have lasting impact.
We develop media campaigns (with young people) and use innovative digital technologies (online platforms and apps) to raise awareness of child marriage and provide confidential spaces for young people to report suspected cases of early and forced marriages to authorities.
7 short child marriage stories
Seven short films that show how and why we work to end child marriage.
Eliminating child marriage in:
Middle East, Eastern and Southern Africa and West and Central Africa
The 18+ Centre of Excellence follows the approach of Plan’s global programme 18+ Ending Child, Early and Forced Marriage and has regional hubs in Eastern and Southern Africa and West and Central Africa.
These hubs provide expertise and support local offices in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of innovative programmes and influencing strategies to end child marriage and teenage pregnancy at local and national levels.
The programme is flexible to accommodate different regional and country-specific challenges, realities and needs.
Asia and the Pacific
The Time to Act! platform aims to accelerate efforts to eliminate child marriage in Asia.
The platform combines strategy, research and analysis, peer-support and learning, campaigns, and digital solutions to increase the scale, effectiveness and lasting impact of programmes helping to end child marriage.
Time to Act! adapts programmes to accommodate different regional and country challenges, realities and needs, promotes a gender-transformative approach, addresses adolescent sexuality and unintended pregnancy and empowers girls.
Americas and the Caribbean
In this region there is a focus on addressing child marriage in conjunction with teenage pregnancy and early unions.
In Guatemala, Plan works with girls to develop life skills, understand their rights, and engage with decision-making spaces.
Research in Peru highlighted teenage pregnancy and gender-based-violence as a cause and consequence of early and forced marriage among poor adolescent women.
In Ecuador, the Teenage Pregnancy Free Zone model combines digital tools, peer learning, and advocacy to reduce adolescent pregnancies and early unions.
“I found out that I was going to be married. When I was told, I didn’t feel very well.”
In Cambodia young women who experienced child marriage are reclaiming their futures by setting up their own businesses.
Where we work to end child marriage
- Middle East, Eastern and Southern Africa: Egypt, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
- West and Central Africa: Cameroon, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal.
- Asia and the Pacific: Bangladesh, Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia.
- Americas and the Caribbean: Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru.
Our partners
We work with partners all across the world to end child marriage.
Our partners include:
- Girls Not Brides
- GENET
- AFHADEV (Cameroon)
- NGO Faren (Nepal)
- UNICEF
- UNFPA
- Save the Children
- The Child Rights Coalition
- European Union
- USAID.
Related pages
