Giving Compass' Take:

• Global Washington and the Seattle International Foundation co-hosted a panel to discuss the complexities of child marriage and how to address this practice.

• What is the role of donors in ending child marriage? What investments are important in helping enhance this effort?

• Here are seven ways the world got closer to ending child marriage in 2018.

Of all the women and girls alive today, 650 million were married before the age of 18. For some, it happened when they were much, much younger. Child marriage, or early marriage, is a practice that is more widespread—and more complex—than one might think.

The UN has identified the elimination of child marriage by 2030 as one of the Sustainable Development Goal targets. According to Kristen Dailey, Executive Director of Global Washington, in order to reach that target the global community needs to work 12 times faster.

To shed light on the critical importance of this issue, Global Washington and the Seattle International Foundation co-hosted a panel to discuss the complex and multi-faceted issue of child marriage.

The risks of child marriage are grave. Eric Sype referenced data showing that girls married before the age of 18 are more likely to be victims of domestic violence, drop out of school, and contract life-threatening diseases. Simultaneously, their children are more likely to be born with birth defects and die within the first year of life. Sype cautioned that while such data helps to inform programming and advocacy, the issue of child marriage is highly complex and always needs to be understood in the local context.

As the panelists made clear throughout the discussion, child marriage does not happen in a vacuum. It is part of a greater system of oppression with many underlying drivers such as a lack of gender equity and access to education; poverty; absence of resources for unplanned pregnancies, health, and safety; and also local cultural and religious norms.

Recognizing the many facets of child marriage is, therefore, a prerequisite to ending it in a way that is comprehensive and sustainable in the long-term.

It often starts with the local community.

Read the full article about ending child marriage by Angelia Miranda at Global Washington.