Happy International Women´s Day - Read Columbia University’s new report to help end child marriage : Shared by Nuzhat Shahzadi

Accelerating Efforts to End Child Marriage

Rachel Vogelstein and Jennifer Klein 

Columbia SIPA Institute of Global Politics Women's Initiative March 2026

Click here for the report 

Summary: A new report from Columbia University's SIPA Institute of Global Politics finds that 640 million women alive today were married as children, with approximately 12 million girls still married before age 18 each year. 

South Asia holds the largest share of child brides — nearly 300 million — with India alone accounting for one-third of the global total. Sub-Saharan Africa's share has grown from 15 to 35 percent over 25 years, driven by population growth outpacing progress. 

The report includes analysis by the Center for Global Development estimating that inaction on child marriage will cost up to $175 billion per year in lost productivity and increased health risks — nearly $2.5 trillion by 2040. 

The authors recommend three priority interventions: investing in girls' education, expanding access to reproductive health services to reduce adolescent pregnancy, and shifting the social and cultural norms that sustain the practice. The report warns that recent cuts to humanitarian and development assistance, and weakening global commitment to women's human rights, threaten to slow or reverse the progress achieved over the past quarter century.

Quotes:

"No parents should see their daughter in despair, and no woman should experience this injustice." — Shirin Musa, Director of Femmes for Freedom

"I had a lot of questions as I was growing up. I asked myself, 'Why can't a girl have her own choices? Why should she be a second-class citizen in our own society? Why can't she just choose on her own?'" — Memory Banda, Malawian children's rights activist, whose sister was married at age 11