Youth Engagement and Child, Early, and Forced Marriage Programming

Child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM), defined as marriage before age 18 or marriage that occurs without the consent of those in the marriage,1 affects an estimated 15 million girls each year.2 CEFM is perpetuated by many factors, including but not limited to poverty, conflict, gender inequality, social and cultural norms, religious beliefs, and economic incentives. This brief has been created to complement and add additional content to the Child, Early, and Forced Marriage Resource Guide, produced for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and proposes social and behavior change (SBC) approaches to strengthen the collective effort to reduce CEFM. This brief, which is part of a series of seven briefs, was developed for program designers and implementers by analyzing successful interventions conducted in many regions of the world. The briefs serve as an “SBC Addendum” to the Resource Guide, providing guidance and examples of how to use SBC to reduce CEFM. Creative, multi-faceted, and innovative interventions and programs that utilize the methods in these briefs are required to address the factors contributing to the prevalence and impact of CEFM.