ABSTRACT
Child marriage is a global problem affecting millions of girls across the world. It is considered a serious human rights violation, with potentially devastating effects on the health, education and long-term prospects of married girls, as well as having negative impacts on society at large. The problem is particularly acute in Uganda, where the population has been growing at an average annual rate of 3.0% since 1978 (doubling every 20 years), and has one of the highest fertility rates in the world. This chapter argues that child marriage in Uganda is reflective of an intricate interplay of factors operating across different levels of the social ecology and that its practice and drivers are deeply entrenched in social norms and traditional conventions. Despite the fact that ending child marriage and preventing early childbearing are considered essential for Uganda’s development, investments towards those goals have so far remained limited.
The chapter highlights the interventions implemented by national and international agencies, and civil society organizations; communications initiatives appear to be the most effective in addressing the discriminatory social norms upholding child marriage in Uganda. However, sustainability and optimization of their interventions entail significant investment in coordination among actors at local level, long-term application at all levels, coordination with other measures aimed at empowerment as well as supply-side investments in service provision to create a supportive environment in order to bring about the desired changes in social norms contributing to child marriage.
