A young women's hand with henna tattoos and a diamond ring. ©infinity21/shutterstock
©infinity21/shutterstock

Child marriage

Globally 12 million girls under 18 years of age enter formal or informal marriages every year. Child marriage increases girls’ risk of early and dangerous pregnancies, limits their formal and informal educational opportunities and increases their risk of poverty. 

Gendered social norms interact both with other norms and with underlying factors such as poverty and limited education and economic opportunities in different contexts to increase the likelihood of child marriage.

ALIGN resources explore insights from recent research on child marriage, effective approaches to changing norms around child marriage, and ways of measuring change.

Think piece

25 April 2019

Jessica Lea/Department for International Development
Social and gender norms and child marriage: A reflection on issues, evidence and areas of inquiry in the field
Authors: Margaret E. Greene , Ellen Stiefvater

Published by: ALIGN

Toolkit

15 April 2019

Open books
Programming and multi-media resources on norms and child marriage
Authors: Margaret E. Greene , Ellen Stiefvater

Published by: ALIGN

Diagram/Infographic

14 September 2018

Gendered norms and beliefs contributing to child marriage diagram
Gendered norms and beliefs contributing to child marriage
Authors: Margaret Greene, Rachel Marcus, Rachel George

Published by: ALIGN

Case study

9 October 2018

A crowd gathers in Kigali, Rwanda at the start of a performance. ©Jean Bizimana/Changing Lives
Building support for women's and girls’ rights through interactive theatre
Authors: Ryan Borcherding, Theatre for change

Published by: ALIGN

Case study

7 November 2018

Married adolescent girls were offered reproductive health advice as part of the project.
Changing norms to tackle child marriage and promote sexual and reproductive health rights in India
Authors: Institute of Health Management, Pachod

Published by: ALIGN

Case study

29 November 2018

Girls playing football in Nepal
Mobilising communities to tackle child, early and forced marriage in Bangladesh and Nepal
Author: Yuleidy Merida

Published by: ALIGN, Care

Child marriage content from the ALIGN community

Briefing paper

31 January 2022

First page of briefing
Research Spotlight: 'Child marriage in humanitarian settings' and 'challenging gender norms to end child marriage'

Published by: Girls Not Brides

Briefing paper

1 August 2021

First page of brief
Research spotlight: Gender-transformative and systems approaches to ending child marriage and promoting girls’ rights

Published by: Girls Not Brides, End Child Marriage

Briefing paper

29 June 2020

First page of phase 2 baseline brief
Programme evaluation and studies: CARE's Tipping Point initiative

Published by: Tipping Point, Care

Report

1 May 2020

Cover of report
Grandmother Project – Change through Culture Girls’ Holistic Development Program Quantitative Research Report
Authors: Bryan Shaw, Anjalee Kohli, Susan Igras

Published by: Passages, USAID

Toolkit

4 February 2020

Cover of one of the manuals
Implementation manuals: CARE’s Tipping Point initiative

Published by: Care, Tipping Point

Toolkit

4 February 2020

First page of one of the briefs
Social norms measurement methods briefs: CARE's Tipping Point initiative

Published by: Care, Tipping Point

View all