Written by – Toqa Mokhtar Hussein
Toqa Mokhtar – Content Creator at صُوتِك Your Voice Initiative
The phenomenon of child marriage continues to contribute to the spread of poverty and restricts the economic growth of the country. Child marriage has economic costs for the state and negative impacts on human development. A new report published by the World Bank and the International Center for Research on Women confirms that developing countries will lose trillions of dollars by 2030 due to child marriage. It also indicated that preventing child marriage has positive effects on the economies of these countries, including:
- Preventing child marriage will have significant positive effects on the educational attainment of girls and their future children and contribute to women having fewer children, increasing their expected income and improving the future well-being of their families.
- It will reduce the overall fertility rates, leading to a significant decrease in population growth rates over time. This in turn will result in increased annual welfare gains.
- It will reduce child mortality rates for children under five and rates of stunted growth due to inadequate nutrition (stunting). Globally, estimates suggest that the benefits of reducing under-five mortality and malnutrition rates could exceed 90 billion dollars annually by 2030.
- Governments will benefit from budget savings due to reduced spending on basic education, health services, and other services.
