What is Child, Early and Forced Marriage?
Child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) is rooted in gender inequality and the belief that girls and women are inferior to boys and men. It is made worse by poverty, lack of education opportunities, discriminatory social norms and practices, and insecurity.
More than 640 million women and girls alive today were married before their 18th birthday. Twenty-one per cent of young women (20-24 years old) around the world were child brides. And while child marriage is most prevalent in low- and middle-income countries, it also takes place in high-income countries. CEFM happens across countries, cultures and religions. Each year, 12 million girls are married before the age of 18. That is 23 girls every minute. Nearly 1 every 3 seconds. The practice of child marriage has declined globally, with one in five young women aged 20 to 24 years married as children versus nearly one in four 10 years ago (according to UNICEF). However the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to have put an additional 10 million girls at risk of being married as children, thus making the SDG target of total elimination by 2030 further out of reach.
As a child rights organization dedicated to ensuring all children have an equal opportunity to survive, learn, and live free from violence, Save the Children is committed to defending the rights of children who are most impacted by discrimination and inequality. One of Save the Children’s top priorities is advancing gender equality, which involves supporting women and girls’ rights and empowerment, as well as ending all forms of gender-based violence including CEFM.
In the past decade, Save the Children has implemented programs to prevent and respond to CEFM in Somalia (2014, 2015-2016 and 2021-2025), Nigeria (2015-2017) and in Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone (2020-2024) funded by Global Affairs Canada.
How does Save the Children contribute to combatting CEFM?
Using a comprehensive and holistic model for social norms change programming, Save the Children simultaneously works across multiple levels, – individual, family, community, institutional, and policy, – to prevent and respond to CEFM.
In Somaliland and Nigeria, we followed a Prevention, Protection and Empowerment approach with girls and boys at risk and those who married early, with their communities (traditional and religious leaders, teachers, health workers and parents/families), and with governments to prevent and respond to CEFM.
Read our book of stories on preventing child, early and forced marriage in Somaliland.
In Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso, the My Body. My Decision. My Rights project implemented a holistic approach centered around adolescent girls (both unmarried and married/in unions) from ages 10 to 18 years old. This included interventions with adolescent girls and boys (both unmarried and married/in unions), male partners, parents and caregivers, religious and traditional leaders, women and girl-led community groups, civil society organizations including women’s and girls’ rights organizations, service providers (including health care, legal and protection services), sub-national, national, and regional government stakeholders. By engaging multiple stakeholders at the same time, the project targeted changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour explicitly related to gender equality to create a positive enabling environment to support girls to exercise their rights, and make decisions about marriage and pregnancy, while reducing risks of backlash and potential violence from families and their communities at large. The project contributed to advocacy efforts that successfully culminated in the enactment of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Law in Sierra Leone
Read our impact briefers on the My Body. My Decision. My Rights project.
Currently Save the Children is implementing the Challenging Harmful Attitudes and Norms for Gender Equality in Somalia (CHANGES) project which focuses on preventing CEFM and Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting (FGM/C).
The CHANGES project is implemented in sixteen districts across Somalia and is led by Save the Children in consortium with CARE International and the International Resource Committee, along with six national partners. The project focused on centering the needs, rights, and voices of adolescent girls from ages 10 to 19 years old. This included multiple gender transformative curricula with the adolescent girls themselves and male peers, as well as initiatives with parents and caregivers, religious and traditional leaders, women’s rights organizations, journalists, the federal government of Somalia, Federal Member States, and local authorities. By engaging multiple stakeholders at the same time, the project targeted changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour explicitly related to gender equality to create a positive enabling environment to support girls to exercise their rights, while reducing risks of backlash and potential violence from families and their communities at large.
The first phase of this project was funded by the UK government from 2016-2020, and this second phase is funded by Global Affairs Canada (2021-2025). While the project is wrapping up, we have seen positive preliminary data, including CEFM rates in intervention households reduced by 50%.
Discover how CHANGES supported women and girls rights groups to fight gender based-violence in Somalia and transform their lives.
Links to research and footnotes
FRAGILE FUTURES: Girls’ rights, child marriage and fragility
Child marriage in humanitarian crises: Girls and parents speak out