Research spotlight: Gender-transformative and systems approaches to ending child marriage and promoting girls’ rights

This Research Spotlight connects the themes of the Child Marriage Research to Action Network’s (the CRANK) first two global research meetings in 2021. It covers evidence on gender-transformative approaches to ending child marriage, and systems approaches to upholding girls’ rights and delaying age of marriage.

It includes key takeaways from featured studies, highlighting the nuanced drivers of child marriage – including gendered social norms that limit agency, and barriers to paid work – and solutions like building skills and working through systems that can deliver at scale and also account for context. It also includes recommendations for further reading on these topics, supporting evidence-based uptake amongst practitioners, policy makers, advocates, researchers and donors.