Girls Not Brides and UNICEF have focused attention through a white paper and expert consultation to better understand the relationship between early marriage and HIV. Their goal was to generate an enhanced understanding of the relationships between child marriage and HIV, identifying gaps in the evidence and promising programs, and establishing a course of action for generating new evidence on vulnerabilities and protective factors for both child marriage and HIV, as well as informing the design of effective programs.
This white paper includes an examination of the evidence, as well as an explanation of methodological issues in researching this topic. The authors provide an overview of promising practices for integrated programming and recommendations for holistic, comprehensive, rights-based and girl-centered approaches to improve well-being for adolescent girls and young women across development programming.