Accelerating Investment to End FGM

Challenge

Where poverty is acute, families may believe that marriage will secure their future. Giving a daughter in marriage can allow parents with scarce resources and alternatives to reduce family expenses by ensuring they have one less person to feed, clothe, and educate. Parents may also believe that marrying their daughter will provide her with security that they cannot provide. In communities where a dowry or "bride price" is paid, it is often welcome income for poor families.

Solution

More comprehensive actions are being taken. Multilateral, bilateral, and national interventions have reduced the number of girls married by providing sexual and reproductive health education, changing laws and policies, advancing girls' education, creating economic opportunities, and engaging communities to change social norms.

Long-Term Impact

Experience and research consistently show that improving the lives of girls also lifts the condition of their families and their communities. Quite simply, investing in girls is the key to breaking the cycle of global poverty. Girls can change the world. But they can't do it without support.