Gender Analysis

Fletcher Professors Pursue Research to Inform Policy 

Child marriage threatens the lives and futures of young people. It robs children of agency to make decisions about their lives, disrupts their education, and makes them more vulnerable to violence, discrimination and abuse.  It prevents their full participation in economic, political and social spheres. Girls married young often become pregnant before their bodies are fully developed, which can result in death or disabilities with lasting consequences. Most of the evidence on child marriage comes from development contexts. We know extremely little about how humanitarian crises, armed conflict and forced displacement affect the prevalence, incidence and nature of child marriage. A recent review finds that international and national humanitarian response fails to protect girls and boys from the harms posed by child marriage. A lack of knowledge of the trends and drivers of child marriage in these settings, however, makes it difficult to design effective responses. 

Professors Dyan Mazurana, Elizabeth Stites, and Kimberly Howe are joining with Feinstein Researchers Anastasia Marshak, Teddy Atim and Fletcher doctoral students in the gender field of study to carry out research to develop a better evidence base to inform policy, programs and advocacy to address child marriage in armed conflict.  

The proposed project, Children and Marriage in Conflict (CMC), will generate this evidence through mixed methods longitudinal research in eight countries – Syria, Lebanon, Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Malaysia – and among settled, forcibly displaced and refugee populations. It will investigate child marriage for both girls and boys. With its breath and depth, CMC will provide ground-breaking information on how conflict, displacement and return affect the prevalence and nature of child marriage. Results will be designed to specifically inform policy and programming.