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High Stakes for Young Lives

Examining Strategies to Stop Child Marriage

A veiled girl from the Saraniya community waits for her engagement ceremony to start at Vadia village in the western Indian state of Gujarat on March 11, 2012. (Amit Dave/Reuters)

BY

  • Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
    Adjunct Senior Fellow for Women and Foreign Policy
  • Lynn S. ElHarake

Overview

There is no single strategy for eliminating child marriage globally. Ending the practice will require a combination of legal frameworks, education policies, enforcement standards, attitude shifts, and economic incentives. Even with growing attention paid to the dangerous consequences of child marriage, a solid understanding about what works and what does not in combatting the practice remains elusive.

Senior Fellow for Women and Foreign Policy Gayle Tzemach Lemmon and Research Associate Lynn S. ElHarake examine the social, economic, and cultural factors driving child marriage in order to help policymakers and civil society leaders curb, and eventually eliminate, child marriage.

This working paper was made possible thanks to generous support from the Ford Foundation, and is part of the Women and Foreign Policy program.t