Girls Not Brides and UNICEF convened an expert consultation to examine the evidence pertaining to the relationship between HIV and early marriage. Understanding about that relationship has changed in the past two decades and experts are now considering a more nuanced understanding of how early marriage relates to HIV. This article provides four recommendations and key conclusions from the expert consultation.
As the health and development community addresses the needs of adolescent girls–in order to achieve their own particular desired outcomes–the authors call on all sectors to consider the underlying structural inequalities that drive girls’ vulnerability–and that they invest in multisectoral, rights-based, gender-transformative policies and programming that respond to the holistic and multifaceted nature of girls’ lives.