The impact and cost of child marriage prevention in three African settings

This large scale study by Population Council evaluates the impact and cost effectiveness of different interventions on child marriage in three countries in Africa, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso. The four types of interventions are:

1. Community dialogue to address social norms


2. Provision of school materials to girls aged 12 to 17, on the condition they remained unmarried and in school.


3. Asset transfers to the girls family, conditional on the 12-to-17-year-old girl remaining unmarried and in school.


4. A comprehensive package combining all three interventions above

The evaluation finds that different interventions work for girls of different ages, that sometimes simple implementations are more effective than more complicated ones, and that cost effectiveness improves by targeting areas where rates of child marriage are high.