Girls' Education and Child Marriage in West and Central Africa : Trends, Impacts, Costs, and Solutions

Within the context of women’s lack of empowerment, the issues of child marriage and low educational attainment for girls are prominent, especially in West and Central Africa. Using survey data for 21 of the 25 countries in West and Central Africa, this article analyzes trends over time in educationa...

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Main Authors:	Male, Chata, Wodon, Quentin
Format:	Journal Article
Published:	Taylor and Francis 2018
Subjects:	GIRLS' EDUCATION CHILD MARRIAGE EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT PRIMARY EDUCATION SECONDARY EDUCATION EMPOWERMENT
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29799

id	okr-10986-29799
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-297992021-05-25T10:54:37Z Girls' Education and Child Marriage in West and Central Africa : Trends, Impacts, Costs, and Solutions Male, Chata Wodon, Quentin GIRLS' EDUCATION CHILD MARRIAGE EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT PRIMARY EDUCATION SECONDARY EDUCATION EMPOWERMENT Within the context of women’s lack of empowerment, the issues of child marriage and low educational attainment for girls are prominent, especially in West and Central Africa. Using survey data for 21 of the 25 countries in West and Central Africa, this article analyzes trends over time in educational attainment for girls and child marriage. Over the last two and a half decades, not accounting for differences in population sizes between countries, according to the latest DHS and MICS surveys available in each country, completion rates increased on average by 24 points, 14 points, and 8 points at the primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary levels, respectively. The prevalence of child marriage decreased by about 8 points over that period. Clearly, progress at the secondary level has been weaker than at the primary level, probably in part due to the persistence of high rates of child marriage in many countries. The article suggests that ending child marriage should improve girls’ educational attainment, and conversely, improving girls’ educational attainment should help reduce child marriage. This, in turn, could have major impacts toward contributing to empowering women more broadly. A review of impact evaluations for pilot interventions suggests how ending child marriage and improving educational attainment for girls could be done, with potentially large economic benefits not only for girls and their future household, but also for the region as a whole. 2018-05-09T20:08:46Z 2018-05-09T20:08:46Z 2018-04-26 Journal Article Forum for Social Economics 0736-0932 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29799 CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Taylor and Francis Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research Africa Central Africa West Africa
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
topic	GIRLS' EDUCATION CHILD MARRIAGE EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT PRIMARY EDUCATION SECONDARY EDUCATION EMPOWERMENT
spellingShingle	GIRLS' EDUCATION CHILD MARRIAGE EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT PRIMARY EDUCATION SECONDARY EDUCATION EMPOWERMENT Male, Chata Wodon, Quentin Girls' Education and Child Marriage in West and Central Africa : Trends, Impacts, Costs, and Solutions
geographic_facet	Africa Central Africa West Africa
description	Within the context of women’s lack of empowerment, the issues of child marriage and low educational attainment for girls are prominent, especially in West and Central Africa. Using survey data for 21 of the 25 countries in West and Central Africa, this article analyzes trends over time in educational attainment for girls and child marriage. Over the last two and a half decades, not accounting for differences in population sizes between countries, according to the latest DHS and MICS surveys available in each country, completion rates increased on average by 24 points, 14 points, and 8 points at the primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary levels, respectively. The prevalence of child marriage decreased by about 8 points over that period. Clearly, progress at the secondary level has been weaker than at the primary level, probably in part due to the persistence of high rates of child marriage in many countries. The article suggests that ending child marriage should improve girls’ educational attainment, and conversely, improving girls’ educational attainment should help reduce child marriage. This, in turn, could have major impacts toward contributing to empowering women more broadly. A review of impact evaluations for pilot interventions suggests how ending child marriage and improving educational attainment for girls could be done, with potentially large economic benefits not only for girls and their future household, but also for the region as a whole.
format	Journal Article
author	Male, Chata Wodon, Quentin
author_facet	Male, Chata Wodon, Quentin
author_sort	Male, Chata
title	Girls' Education and Child Marriage in West and Central Africa : Trends, Impacts, Costs, and Solutions
title_short	Girls' Education and Child Marriage in West and Central Africa : Trends, Impacts, Costs, and Solutions
title_full	Girls' Education and Child Marriage in West and Central Africa : Trends, Impacts, Costs, and Solutions
title_fullStr	Girls' Education and Child Marriage in West and Central Africa : Trends, Impacts, Costs, and Solutions
title_full_unstemmed	Girls' Education and Child Marriage in West and Central Africa : Trends, Impacts, Costs, and Solutions
title_sort	girls' education and child marriage in west and central africa : trends, impacts, costs, and solutions
publisher	Taylor and Francis
publishDate	2018
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29799
_version_	1764470398677680128

Girls' Education and Child Marriage in West and Central Africa : Trends, Impacts, Costs, and Solutions

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