a fair chance for girls – end child marriage The costs are too high – for the girls whose rights are incentives and supporting families, and strengthening violated when they are married, and for the societies and enforcing laws and policies that set the minimum that need those girls to grow up into productive, age of marriage at 18 for both girls and boys. empowered adults. education is a critical part of the solution. Girls who Married girls are among the world’s most vulnerable have little or no education are up to six times more people. When their education is cut short, girls lose likely to be married as children than girls who have the chance to gain the skills and knowledge to secure secondary schooling. When a girl is in school, those a good job and provide for themselves and their around her are more likely to see her as a child, rather families. They are socially isolated. as i observed than as a woman ready to be a wife and mother. and among my former schoolmates who were forced to the experience of going to school is empowering for get married, the consciousness of their isolation is in girls, enabling them to develop skills and knowledge, itself painful. and to forge social networks that equip them to communicate and stand up for their interests. Subordinate to their husbands and families, married educated girls are better able to contribute to their girls are more vulnerable to domestic violence, and countries’ growth and development, and also to the not in a position to make decisions about safe sex prosperity and well-being of their future families. and family planning – which puts them at high risk of sexually transmitted infections, including hiV, and of fifteen million girls are married as children every year, pregnancy and childbearing before their bodies are and the sheer numbers underline the importance fully mature. already risky pregnancies become even of investing in solutions that can have an impact at riskier, as married girls are less likely to get adequate scale, to speed up progress in ending the practice. medical care. during delivery, mothers who are still focused investments to reach and empower poor and children are at higher risk of potentially disabling marginalized girls through health, education, social complications, like obstetric fistula, and both they and protection and other systems can create alternative their babies are more likely to die. pathways for girls and their families. By robbing girls of their potential, child marriage no less critical is the slow, patient work of changing robs families, communities and nations of the social norms. These kinds of long-lasting, fundamental contributions these girls might have made as changes come from within communities, and they women. Child marriage hampers countries’ efforts depend on engaging both mothers and fathers in to improve the health of mothers and children, fight finding solutions that make a difference in their malnutrition and keep children in school. When girls daughters’ lives. are married as children, they cannot help but pass on poverty, low education and poor health – into which When child marriage is a thing of the past, we will they themselves have been trapped – to the next have put an end to an inequity that takes away girls’ generation. fundamental rights and steals their childhoods. More girls and women will be able to make the most of their Child marriage may seem like an intractable problem. lives and give their best to their families, communities it happens because societies often place a lesser and societies – which will go a long way towards value on girls – so they don’t get the same chances as breaking intergenerational cycles of poverty and their brothers – and because poverty and other forms strengthening communities and nations. ending child of disadvantage, like low levels of education, further marriage unlocks possibilities that can transform life constrain their opportunities, making marriage seem for girls and yield benefits for us all. like the best option to secure a girl’s future. But there are proven strategies that can change girls’ lives, preserve their childhoods and empower them to make better futures for themselves and their societies. Florence, 14, at the Hope Secondary School, in These involve increasing girls’ access to education, Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. empowering girls with knowledge and skills, educating parents and communities, increasing economic © UNICEF/UNI199292/Dubourthoumieu The STaTe of The World’S Children 2016 39