Maseru, Apr. 02 — Each year, more than 12 million girls are married before their 18th birthday. Child marriages remain one of the most urgent and persistent violations of girls’ rights globally.
This has been disclosed by a Girls, not Brides report.
The report says child marriage deprives girls of their education, health, safety, and economic potential, perpetuating cycles of poverty and inequality across entire communities.
It goes on to table that investing in ending child marriage is critical for the wellbeing of girls, their families, wider society, and future generations, adding that in the past 25 years, 68 million child marriages have been prevented worldwide, with the proportion of girls who are married falling from 1 in 4 to 1 in 5 within the last decade.
It however shows that progress has been uneven and rates remain high in many regions and countries. Investing in ending child marriage is an essential move towards an equal world for everyone.
The report further indicates that there is, however, limited knowledge of the funding landscape to address child marriage, but the analysis of funding for ending child marriage is critical at a time when existing and new donors must urgently make needs-based decisions and develop strategies for impact.
2025 was marked by donors significantly cutting overall funding for international development, with these cuts disproportionately affecting gender equality work.
Girls, not Bride’s report also states that these cuts to official development assistance (ODA) come at a time of difficult fiscal environments for low-income and lower-middle income countries.
It is estimated that half of humanity lives in countries that spend more in interest on debt than on health or education.
Millions of girls and women around the world are already experiencing the devastating impact of these cuts, reducing their access to critical health care, education, and poverty-reduction programmes.
It highlights that conflict, climate change, anti-rights movements, and shrinking civic spaces, combined with these cuts in ODA, contribute further to accelerating child marriage rates.
Again, no region is currently on track to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 5.3 of eliminating child marriage, and these new funding cuts threaten to reverse the progress that has been made in the last decade.
In Lesotho, 24 percent of girls in 1999 married before age 18, compared with 13% in 2024, which is the latest available value.
In Southern Africa, the prevalence was 12% in 1999 and was 4% in 2024.
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