Policy Brief in Nature: Marriage of adolescent girls in Nigeria reduced by 80% by 'big push' intervention
A locally tailored, safe spaces model to educate unmarried adolescent girls in 18 communities in northern Nigeria reduced rates of marriage from 86% to just 21%, indicating that interventions that address complex, entrenched social problems from various angles simultaneously might be considerably more effective than smaller-scale, cheaper alternatives are. Using data from their randomized control trial also published in Nature, the authors argue that the whole-community focus reduces the likelihood of social backlash and contributes meaningfully to its success. The results demonstrate that a big push can significantly alter entrenched, normative behaviour around child marriage.
By Isabelle Cohen, Maryam Abubakar & Daniel Perlman
