Investing less than USD 20 per girl every year to raise awareness about ills of child marriage and providing economic assistance can delay the age of marriage for girls below 17, a new study has found.
The study by Population Council evaluated the effectiveness of four strategies to delay the age at marriage among girls aged 12-17 in parts of Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Burkina Faso with a high prevalence of child marriage.
The four strategies tested were - community conversations informing communities about the dangers of child marriage; supporting girls' education by providing girls with school supplies or uniforms; providing conditional economic incentives to families for keeping girls unmarried; and combining all these approaches.
In Ethiopia, communities where girls were offered educational support, girls 12-14 were 94 per cent less likely to be married.
When girls were offered two chickens for every year they remained unmarried and in school, girls aged 15-17 were half as likely to be married, researchers said.
In communities that were engaged in conversations about the value of educating girls and the harms of child marriage, girls 12-14 were two-thirds less likely to be married.
In communities where all the strategies were employed, girls 15-17 were two-thirds less likely to be married.
In Tanzania, in communities where girls were offered goats for remaining unmarried and in school, girls aged 15-17 were two-thirds less likely to be married than were girls of the same age who lived in a comparison area where the programme was not offered, a statistically significant reduction.
The interventions to keep girls 12-14 unmarried and in school did not achieve a statistically significant effect, researchers said.
However, in the case of the full model, which included provision of all three interventions, there is evidence of a positive effect among girls 12-14 and among girls 15-17.
"When families and communities recognise the harms of child marriage, and have economic alternatives, they will delay the age at which their daughters get married," said lead researcher Annabel Erulkar, Population Council senior associate, Ethiopia country director.
Erulkar also examined the cost of implementing each of the four strategies that were tested in each country-data.
In Ethiopia, school supplies cost USD 17 per girl per year, community conversations cost USD 30 per girl per year, and conditional economic incentives, 2 chickens, cost USD 32 per girl per year.
The full model, providing all three interventions, cost USD 44 per girl per year.
In Tanzania, community conversations cost USD 11 per girl per year, school supplies cost USD 22 per girl per year and conditional economic incentives, one goat, cost USD 107 per girl per year. The full model cost USD 117 per girl per year.
"For less than USD 20 per girl, we can prevent a child in Ethiopia from getting married before she turns 15," said Erulkar.
