The impact and cost of child marriage prevention in three African settings—Brief

Child marriage affects a significant number of girls in developing countries. The negative consequences of the practice are numerous and powerful, spanning health, welfare, development, and demographic domains. Yet there is limited evidence on what works to delay child marriage in different cultural contexts and even less information on programmatic cost. This brief reports on a study that aims to identify the most effective and minimum basic package approaches to delay marriage among adolescent girls in different African settings. The study was undertaken in rural areas of Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, and Tanzania. The study also measures the cost of implementing different approaches, as well as cost-effectiveness. It provides information on how best to design programs that are scalable and sustainable within poor settings, and that can provide support for the millions of girls in developing countries at risk of child marriage