Guidance for Engaging Traditional Leaders: Child Marriage

Across West and Central Africa (WCA), the prevalence of child marriage is 41%, meaning that four out of ten girls and young women, or nearly 60 million, were married before the age of 18.  It is expected that, as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, child marriages will rise. Tradition is one of the driving forces behind child marriage, and working with traditional leaders can be a way to address the root of the problem. However, the involvement of traditional leaders in advocacy and campaigns requires preconditions. This creative guide is a mapping of approaches used to raise awareness about the impacts of child marriage on school aged girls and to get traditional leaders involved in campaigns to end child marriage around the region.