Investing in Girls Is Investing in Global Security

Each year, approximately twelve million girls worldwide are married before the age of eighteen—often forced into lives of curtailed education, limited economic opportunity, and heightened vulnerability to violence and poor health outcomes. Ending child, early, and forced marriage is essential to cultivating the next generation of leaders, entrepreneurs, and changemakers who can drive inclusive growth and democratic resilience. It is more than a human rights violation—it is a strategic threat to global security, economic development, and democratic stability, and therefore a pressing U.S. national security concern. 

This month, as the world marked the International Day of the Girl, governments and funders renewed their commitments to ending child marriage. It is a timely moment to reflect on the United States’ bipartisan record of supporting global efforts to end this practice—and to chart a path forward. 

U.S. government attention to child marriage as a foreign policy and girls’ rights issue gained steam in the early 2010s. Under the Obama administration, the State Department began including a dedicated section on child, early, and forced marriage in its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices—a feature that has remained, even in the streamlined 2024 reports. The 2013 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act included a new directive requiring the Secretary of State to develop and implement a strategy to combat child marriage internationally, officially codifying it within U.S. foreign policy.  

During the first Trump administration, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) invested millions of dollars to address child marriage both directly and through broader initiatives focused on education, health, economic empowerment, and social norms change. First Lady Melania Trump launched the “Be Best” initiative, which included a dedicated focus on children’s well-being, and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s Fiscal Year 2019 Congressional Budget Justification requested funding specifically to address challenges facing girls around the world, including early and forced marriage. In 2016, then-Senator Marco Rubio chaired a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on child marriage, underscoring that “it perpetuates poverty, has lasting maternal and infant health ramifications, and often contributes to violence.” 

Under the Biden administration, U.S. foreign assistance expanded this focus on child, early, and forced marriage prevention and increased overall support for gender-based violence prevention, maintaining the highest-ever level of investment—$250 million—to address all forms of gender-based violence globally. In 2023, the United States made its first contribution to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Global Programme to End Child Marriage, elevating U.S. investment in child marriage prevention to the global stage. The Biden administration’s U.S. National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality—also the first of its kind—framed child, early, and forced marriage as both a human rights issue and a security concern that impacts the stability of entire nations. These steps signaled a strategic shift: acknowledging that ending child marriage and empowering girls is central to U.S. foreign policy and to building peaceful, prosperous, and stable societies. 

While the second Trump administration has yet to elevate child marriage as a foreign policy concern, the momentum must not be lost. First Lady Trump continues to champion children’s rights, from hosting a March bipartisan roundtable in support of the “Take it Down” Act—focused on children’s online safety—before it was passed into law in May, to imploring Russian President Vladimir Putin to protect children in an August letter. Despite the elimination of the State Department’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, Secretary Rubio has indicated that the department will aim to “take every opportunity to defend and to promote women and girls across the world,” and earlier this year named a Special Envoy for Best Future Generations, tasked with advancing U.S. policy to protect the well-being of children both domestically and internationally.  

Furthermore, Congressional champions continue to underscore the importance of addressing child marriage; the FY26 budget draft would direct $200 million to prevent violence against women and girls, specifically naming child marriage as a form of violence to be addressed.   

Even amid intensifying global crises and constrained aid budgets, policymakers in Congress, the White House, and the State Department cannot afford to leave adolescent girls behind. By (1) preserving long-standing earmarks to address gender-based violence globally as FY26 budget negotiations progress, (2) maintaining funding for UNICEF to support the Global Programme to End Child Marriage, (3) sustaining investments initiated under the first Trump administration that prioritize child marriage prevention across education, health, and economic funding, and (4) leveraging dedicated policy stakeholders such as the new Special Envoy for Best Future Generations, the United States has a powerful opportunity to advance the rights, health, and potential of girls—and to support the conditions that make democracy, security, and development possible. 

Stephanie Mulhern Ogorzalek previously served as Director of Global Gender Issues at the White House Gender Policy Council. She also served as a Director in the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, where she led a team driving U.S. foreign policy efforts to prevent and respond to gender-based violence globally.