The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)–United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Global Programme to End Child Marriage (the Global Programme) works with diverse partners to advocate for and support practical actions to end child marriage and promote gender equality and the rights of adolescent girls. This factsheet presents the Global Programme’s experiences in and plans for addressing child marriage in humanitarian settings in collaboration with development and humanitarian partners.

This factsheet is based largely on the discussions and presentations from a consultation on child marriage in humanitarian settings organized by the Global Programme in Jordan in February 2020. In the month after the consultation, the world was confronted with a massive challenge in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has strained individual and institutional capacities and resilience everywhere. The ruptures in basic services and entitlements – health, education, safety, livelihoods, food and nutrition – as a result of the pandemic have brought elevated risks of child marriage and unions in their wake. The pandemic underscores the importance of the work of the Global Programme, its partners and various other actors in building the resilience of girls, families and communities by promoting the understanding of adolescents’ rights and investing in systems and services.