Economic Impacts of Child Marriage

Negative Impacts on Girls, their Children, Families, Communities and Nations

Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals has as one of its targets to “eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.” A recent study suggests that many countries have begun to adopt strategies to end the practice and investments are being made to that effect, including by promoting girls’ education. However more could still be done.

A paper prepared for the Economic Impacts of Child Marriage project, a collaborative effort by the International Center for Research on Women and the World Bank with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, and additional support from the Global Partnership for Education states “the impacts and economic costs associated with child marriage are high. They suggest that investing to end child marriage is not only the right thing to do, but also makes sense from an economic point of view.” Dowload a copy of the report here.