Young Leaders' Experiences and Recommendations to Strategically Tackle Child, Early, and Forced Marriage

Tackling the drivers and outcomes of child marriage requires the voices of young activists and researchers as we are able to bring a fresh perspective to understanding the pressures that adolescent girls face in our communities and contribute ideas about solutions that will resonate in our specific contexts. In this commentary, we bring together the voices and experiences of three young women activists and researchers from three additional regions—Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Identified through the Adolescent Girls Investment Plan (The Adolescent Girls Investment Plan (AGIP) is a global partnership co-chaired by Plan International and Girls Not Brides (GNB) that aims to stimulate the development of investment frameworks and tools for decision makers to confidently deliver a comprehensive approach to advance gender equality through girl-centered approaches and actions. We highlight the unique perspective of an 18-year-old advocating for child marriage prevention laws in Guatemala, a 24-year-old building child marriage prevention into medical training and health care in Lithuania and beyond, and a 23-year-old pioneering participatory research approaches to strengthen data and evidence-informed programming for married girls in her Syrian refugee community in Jordan.

Suggested citation

Eyleen, Alheiwidi, S., Janušonytė, E. (2021) 'Young Leaders' Experiences and Recommendations to Strategically Tackle Child, Early, and Forced Marriage,' Journal of Adolescent Health 69(6): S11–12 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.07.031)