A girl marries every 30 seconds in countries ranked fragile and child marriage hotspots – New Report

LONDON/GENEVA, 11 October 2024 – A girl is married every 30 seconds in countries ranked as fragile states and with high child marriage rates, with about 32 million adolescent girls living in these emergency hotspots, according to new analysis released today by Save the Children [1]. 

Save the Children's latest Global Girlhood Report 2024: Fragile Futures set out to analyse if there was a link between fragility and child marriage and found some 32 million girls are living in countries rated ‘extremely fragile’ or ‘fragile’ and with high child marriage rates – so called “fragility-child marriage hotspots”. 

Eight of 10 of the worst fragility-child marriage hotspots are located in Africa with the Central African Republic, Chad and South Sudan the worst affected, followed by Somalia and Eritrea [2]. 

The report, released on International Day of the Girl, also found that the 36 million girls living in 15 countries ranked ‘extremely fragile’ by the OECD were twice as likely to marry under the age of 17 than girls in more stable countries. One in 10 children marriages occurs in these states [3].

In extremely fragile countries, almost 558,000 girls - or one-in-four - give birth before their 18th birthday. Many of those girls will not have access to skilled birth attendants to support them through the heightened risks associated with adolescent pregnancy. 

The number of countries ranked as fragile has increased in recent years with the OECD listing 60 countries as fragile in its 2022 States of Fragility report. Of these 15 countries were ranked as ‘extremely fragile’ and 45 countries as ‘fragile’, with 170 million adolescent girls living in these countries. This was an increase from a total of 57 fragile countries in 2020 and 58 in 2018.

Fragile countries are those where the government does not have enough control over responsibilities like law-making, law enforcement, managing the economy and the services that people need to be safe and healthy. They are also countries more often affected by crises like wars and climate disasters, which contribute to fragility and its consequences.  Extremely fragile countries are those where these factors are the most extreme.

Child marriage has devastating consequences for a girl’s life by depriving them of their rights to health, education, safety and participation. Girls married young are far less likely to stay in school, impacting their economic independence and decision-making, at higher risk of physical and sexual violence, and face more complications in pregnancy and child birth and infection with HIV/AIDS.

Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children International, said:

“Our latest report reveals a devastating link between child marriage and fragile states, with girls living in extremely fragile countries twice as likely to marry than girls in countries experiencing periods of greater stability. The picture is bleak for these children; right now, no fragile country is on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals on ending hunger, ensure education and health for all, or gender equality. 

“Fragility has also increased since the COVID-19 pandemic and is linked to many of the new crises we see today, eroding the systems communities rely on for healthcare, safety, education and income.

“Persistent and unaddressed inequalities, the climate crisis and the erosion of children's and human rights mean that girls’ lives continue to be shaped by a cycle of crisis and recovery. And this will continue unless urgent action is taken.

“Governments are ultimately responsible for guaranteeing the rights of all people within their borders. For governments in fragile settings this is more difficult as they face the dual challenge of needing to do more to protect girls rights at a time when they are less able to deliver that support. More resources are needed to support the governments, civil society organisations and communities - including girls - in fragile settings to ensure they can respond to the needs. The governments of the fragile countries, UN agencies, civil society organisations, and donors must work together to ensure girls' rights are protected.”

To uphold girls’ rights and address child marriage in fragile settings, Save the Children is calling on governments, UN Agencies, civil society organisations and donors focused on development and humanitarian settings to collaborate across development and humanitarian contexts for girls’ rights. In doing so they must develop policy guidance to address child marriage and support girls’ rights in fragile settings, and must invest more in research and trialing new responses. 

As a child rights organisation dedicated to ensuring all children have an equal opportunity to survive, learn, and live free from violence, Save the Children works around the world to prevent and respond to child, early, forced marriage and unions around the world. 

Our key strategies include supporting girls’ empowerment, including through meaningful participation in decision-making; mobilising families and communities as allies for gender equality; providing improved and inclusive gender-responsive access to services; conducting research and budget analysis to inform technical guidance on good practice programming, laws and policies; and advocating to ensure governments and other decision-makers are accountable to girls.

You can read the report here: Global Girlhood Report 2024: Fragile Futures

NOTES: 

[1] The figures are calculations done by Save the Children UK’s research and data hub using publicly available demographic and health statistics. We use the latest available data points on child marriage (%) from UNICEF, skilled birth attendance for ages 15 to 19 (%) and birth under 18 (%) from UNICEF Data, and data on out of school girls from UNESCO UIS. Data on fragility is taken from OECD States of Fragility index 2022 which categorised countries as “Extremely fragile”, “Other Fragile”, and “Rest of the World”. Projections of female population by age groups in 2024 is taken from World Population Prospects - Population Division - United Nations. Adolescent girls refer to girl population from age 10 to 17 years of age. To find the absolute number of child marriages in fragile contexts, child marriage numbers are calculated using weighted average of girl population in the age group of 20-24 by country before aggregating the countries into the respective fragility context. Similarly, the same is done for maternal health statistics by the appropriate age groups. 

[2] Eight of 10 of the worst fragility-child marriage hotspots are located in Africa with the Central African Republic, Chad and South Sudan the worst affected, followed by Somalia and Eritrea. The other hotspots listed were Sudan, Yemen, Equatorial Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Afghanistan. 

[3] From OECD’s Fragile States Index – 36 million girls live in “extremely” fragile countries; 134 million girls live in ‘other’ fragile’ countries – meaning those that aren’t fragile enough to be ranked ‘extreme’; and a total of 170 million girls live in countries consider fragile in total (extremely + other fragile).

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