Abstract
Over the past 25 years, tremendous progress has been made in increasing the evidence on child marriage and putting it to good use to reduce the prevalence of child marriage and provide support to married girls. However, there is still much to be done to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal target 5.3 of ending child marriage by 2030, and to meet the needs of the 12 million girls who are still married before age 18 each year. To guide and stimulate future efforts, the UNDP-UNFPA-UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction, the World Health Organization, the UNICEF-UNFPA Global Programme to End Child Marriage, and Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage convened an expert group meeting in 2019 to: (1) review the progress made in building the evidence base on child marriage since the publication of research priorities in this area in 2015, (2) identify an updated set of research priorities for the next ten years, and (3) discuss how best to support research coordination, translation, and uptake.This article provides a summary of the progress made in this area since 2015 and lists an updated set of research gaps and their rationale in four key areas: (1) prevalence, trends, determinants, and correlates of child marriage; (2) consequences of child marriage; (3) intervention effectiveness studies to prevent child marriage and support married girls; and (4) implementation research studies to prevent child marriage and support married girls. It also highlights a number of calls-to-action around research coordination and knowledge translation to support the emerging and evolving needs of the field.
Highlights
Over the past 25 years, tremendous progress has been made in increasing the evidence on child marriage and put‐ ting it to good use to reduce the prevalence of child marriage and provide support to married girls
The participants of the 2019 expert group meeting called for a more purposive global learning agenda that responds to where the field is in different settings and contexts
Various stakeholders at different levels have roles to play in building the evidence base on child marriage and utilizing it to advance policy and programmes to end child marriage and support married girls
Summary
Over the past 25 years, tremendous progress has been made in increasing the evidence on child marriage and put‐ ting it to good use to reduce the prevalence of child marriage and provide support to married girls. 1. Carry out analyses (where they do not already exist) of short- and long-term consequences of child marriage for girls across their life course (e.g., related to childbearing, health including mental health, education, economic well-being/opportunities, family size and structure, power relations, violence, and social support systems), for the men and boys whom they marry, and for their children and families. 1. Carry out intervention effectiveness studies/evaluations to assess the impact of specific interventions/ approaches to delay marriage and support married girls, targeted at different groups (e.g., girls, boys/ men, parents, and communities) and in specific contexts.
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