Child marriage laws in Africa need more funding to protect girls

With global funding to end child marriage falling yearly since 2019, African governments must take action to strengthen budgeting and implementation of child marriage laws.  

By Sally Ncube, Equality Now, and Fatou Gueye Ndir, Senior Regional Engagement and Advocacy Officer, Girls Not Brides

Although numerous African governments have strengthened laws against child marriage, legal protections remain widely underfunded and ineffectively enforced. Many countries have no clearly outlined, dedicated national budget line for ending child marriage. Instead, allocated money is incorporated into broader gender or social protection budgets, where funds are often difficult or impossible for auditors to trace or civil society to access. 

Funding to end child marriage is falling 

The joint report, ‘International Funding to End Child Marriage: Reviewing a Decade of Investment,’ by Girls Not Brides and Girls First Fund, with input from Publish What You Fund, found that funding to end child marriage accounts for only a tiny fraction of Official Development Assistance (ODA), while local frontline organisations working directly with girls and communities receive only a sliver of available budgets.  

Between 2015 and 2023, just 0.025 per cent of all ODA globally was directed to projects whose primary objective was to end child marriage. A further 0.081 per cent went to broader projects in which addressing child marriage was one of several objectives, rather than the primary purpose, and it was not possible to determine how much of this secondary funding was specifically spent on child marriage interventions. 

Investment to end child marriage peaked in 2019. Since then, it has fallen every year, dropping from US$76 million to US$51 million by 2023, and this deterioration accelerated with 2025’s historic decline in global aid. With several major donors scaling back investment in gender equality, ODA faces mounting pressure.

Over the next five years, more than 70 million girls worldwide are expected to be at risk of child marriage. Yet current levels of international funding dedicated to ending this form of violence against children amount to less than US$1 per girl at risk each year globally. At a time when conflict, climate change, anti-rights movements and shrinking civic space are all exacerbating the dangers girls face, declining investment threatens to further undermine child protection in Africa.

Ending child marriage is also an economic imperative: girls who marry later stay in school longer, earn more, and raise healthier families, with gains that impact entire communities. 

Legal loopholes and poor enforcement of laws leave girls vulnerable to child marriage 

Passing laws is only the first step. Governments must back them with dedicated funding, strengthening relevant institutions and duty bearers, for effective enforcement, oversight, and clear accountability. A dedicated budget line is not a bureaucratic technicality; it is the difference between turning legal promises and human rights obligations and commitments to end child marriage on paper into meaningful real-world protection for girls.

Most African Union Member States have ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which requires countries to prohibit child marriage. The Charter has established a strong regional legal framework and contributed to many countries enacting laws to prevent child marriage. What is now needed is a concerted effort to improve implementation of existing laws and remove remaining gaps in legal protections. 

According to the African Union’s 2026 report, Ending Child Marriage in Africa, 18 countries in Africa have a minimum marriage age of 18 or above, with no exceptions. The continent’s remaining 37 countries do not meet this standard. Some set a minimum age below 18 for one or both sexes, while others have raised the age of marriage to 18 but permit exemptions, such as allowing judicial, parental or other legal authorisation for a child to marry.

The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC), in its 2026 Thematic Report on Harmful Practices Affecting Children in Africa, stated that despite decades of advocacy and progress in strengthening legal frameworks, child marriage remains widespread and deeply entrenched across much of Africa. 

ACERWC noted that progress has been persistently hindered by weak and inconsistent enforcement of laws, legal loopholes and customary law exceptions, inadequate funding, and inadequate coordination between relevant authorities. It also highlighted limited collection and analysis of reliable data to guide action and measure progress, weak monitoring and accountability mechanisms, and barriers to accessing justice for children affected by harmful practices. 

A report by Women and Law in Southern Africa and Equality Now illustrates why stronger laws must be backed by stronger systems. They found that although 18 is the minimum legal age of marriage with no exceptions in Zimbabwe, child marriage remains widespread and survivors continue to struggle to access justice, healthcare and education. 

How to end child marriage in Africa

Things need to change.

The ACERWC should call on every State Party to include a dedicated financing section in its periodic submissions, showing budget allocations by ministry and year. It should also set a firm 2027 deadline for governments to establish trackable national budget lines, with progress reviewed at the Committee’s 48th Ordinary Session.

Girls should sit at the centre of accountability frameworks built in their name: not as recipients of decisions made by others, but as rights-holders who can inform policy and push governments to turn commitments into action.

Without well-funded laws, child marriage will continue in Africa

Parliaments, audit institutions, human rights bodies, and civil society already know what needs to be done. With the right laws enacted and properly resourced, we can achieve the positive change needed.

Governments must create clear, public budget lines for child marriage prevention, and rely less on donor funding by raising more of their own resources. 

Ministries should have clear accountability systems to prevent responsibility from being shifted between people. And the African Union Accountability Framework on the Elimination of Harmful Practices should move beyond its six pioneer states to cover every AU member.

We call on donors and development partners to increase and ringfence funding, as well as incorporate child marriage prevention into health, education, and humanitarian budgets. In addition, at least half of all primary funding should go directly to local and national civil society organisations who work closest and most directly with girls and their communities.

Budget transparency is integral to child protection. Governments cannot enforce what they do not fund, and cannot be held effectively accountable for commitments they are never required to report on.

This article was first published by the Times Group.

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Notes to editors:

For media enquiries, contact Sphiwe Dlamini, Communications Officer, Equality Now, sdlamini@equalitynow.org, T. +27 (0)711429179  (available on WhatsApp).  

Note: Child marriage, also refferred to as “Child, early, and forced marriages and unions (CEFMU)” are formal marriages or informal unions in which at least one party is under 18 years of age, and/or in which one or both parties do not give full, free and informed consent due to coercion, duress, social or family pressure, or inability to leave the union. Child marriage is considered a form of forced marriage because children under 18 cannot give valid consent.

About the authors:

Sally Ncube is Equality Now’s Regional Representative for Southern Africa. She leads and supports Equality Now regional legal advocacy and movement-building initiatives that promote legal equality, reform rape, family and nationality laws, strengthen access to justice, and address gender-based violence, including ending child marriage, female genital mutilation, sexual exploitation and sex trafficking through strategic engagement with governments, regional institutions, and civil society. 

Fatou Gueye Ndir is Girls Not Brides Senior Regional Engagement and Advocacy Officer within the Africa Team. Fatou is responsible for regional advocacy, including supporting members for greater visibility at the regional and continental level. She is based in Senegal and provides critical support to strengthen Girls Not Brides National Partnerships, coalitions and other networks and alliances at the national level.