ICRW and Girls Not Brides release briefs designed to increase efforts to prevent and end child marriage

This month, ICRW, in partnership with Girls Not Brides, released 10 briefs that provide a short, accessible introduction to incorporating child marriage prevention and response efforts cross a range of sectors and programs. The briefs are useful for a variety of actors working in different sectors globally, including Health; Education; Democracy, Human Rights and Governance; Economic Growth and Workforce Development; Conflict and Crisis; Food Security and Nutrition; Agriculture, Energy and the Environment; Gender-based Violence; and Youth.

 

With a growing body of evidence demonstrating the connections between child marriage and a range of development priorities, from economic growth and poverty alleviation to health, human rights and social justice, we know that effective strategies to address child marriage require dedicated efforts, as well as cross-sectoral cooperation and integration. These briefs are designed to meet that need, identifying concrete ways in which child marriage prevention and response efforts can be tailored for programming within and across sectors. 

 

The briefs, which are designed for use by those who are not gender experts or well-versed in the issue of child marriage, draw heavily on the Child, Early and Forced Marriage Resource Guide, which ICRW and Banyan Global produced last year for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Targeted toward various sectors, they are meant to provide program designers and implementers with pathways toward tackling child marriage in their programmatic efforts, including illustrative monitoring and evaluation indicators.

 

“Preventing child marriage, as well as responding to the needs of adolescents who are already married, requires concerted action from a wide range donors, implementers, researchers and advocates,” said Suzanne Petroni, Senior Director of Global Health, Youth and Development at ICRW. “It is our hope that these new resources will provide these important stakeholders with straightforward tools they can use to join the fight in mitigating and eradicating this harmful practice.”