Secondary Education and Child Marriage in Forced Displacement and Crisis Settings

This brief was commissioned to contribute to expert discussion within the Secondary Education Working Group. It is intended to inform advocacy, programming and learning efforts to advance secondary education which is responsive to the prevention of child marriage and the inclusion of adolescent girls who are ever married, pregnant and/or young mothers.

This brief was informed by a rapid review of good practice, evidence-based programmatic guidance and thematic reports, as well as conversations with practitioners and advisors from Secondary Education Working Group member organisations. This brief is non-exhaustive but aims to provide an initial brief for discussion with SEWG members to support further investment in action and evidence gathering on child marriage and secondary education.

The brief presents an overview of actions and approaches to address child marriage within secondary education in forced displacement and crisis-affected settings. It showcases how gender-responsive and inclusive secondary education can  support adolescent girls who are at risk of marriage, ever married, pregnant and/or young mothers. The brief is structured through the lens of the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergency Minimum Standards for Education: Preparedness, Response, Recovery to highlight how education actors can, and must, take more intentional action to tackle child marriage in humanitarian programming. The brief includes a series of initial recommendations generated through discussion with SEWG members to advance secondary education programming, innovation and learning on child marriage.