Reducing Early Marriage Through Safe Spaces, Livelihoods, and Community Action

A World Bank study in Côte d’Ivoire found that combining safe spaces with livelihood support, husbands’ clubs, and community leader engagement significantly improves adolescent girls' empowerment, reducing early marriage and pregnancy while boosting economic opportunities. Multi-sectoral, community-wide approaches proved most effective in fostering lasting gender norm changes.

A cluster-randomized trial conducted by the World Bank’s Gender Innovation Lab, in collaboration with the Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) project, explored multi-sectoral strategies to improve adolescent girls’ empowerment (AGE) in Côte d’Ivoire. The study, which spanned 280 localities and 60 middle schools across the northern regions of the country, assessed the impact of safe spaces offering life skills and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education, alongside complementary interventions such as livelihood support, husbands’ clubs, and the involvement of community and religious leaders. Côte d’Ivoire, with persistent gender inequalities, faces significant challenges: limited female education, early marriages, high fertility rates, and low contraceptive usage. This trial addressed these issues, demonstrating that multi-sectoral approaches yield the most transformative results for adolescent girls by fostering economic opportunities, reducing early childbearing, and shifting community gender norms.

Safe Spaces Alone: Positive but Limited Gains

Safe spaces, where girls met regularly under the guidance of female mentors, were a central component of the intervention. These spaces focused on life skills, SRH education, and mental health support. The study found that safe spaces alone improved SRH knowledge, leading to increased awareness of modern contraceptive methods, maternal healthcare, and a reduction in risky behaviors such as transactional sex. Girls also displayed better mental health and more progressive gender attitudes. However, these benefits did not extend to structural outcomes like improved economic opportunities, socio-emotional skills, or decision-making power. While life skills and SRH knowledge are critical foundations, the study underscored that they alone are insufficient to create long-term changes in autonomy and livelihood opportunities for girls.

Combining Safe Spaces with Livelihood Support

The addition of livelihood support to safe spaces provided notable benefits in girls’ economic prospects. This intervention focused on income-generating activities (IGA), equipping girls with entrepreneurship training and small grants to start businesses. Girls in these programs reported increased economic participation, reflecting the value of pairing foundational education with practical tools for financial independence. Interestingly, the research also showed that husbands’ clubs where boys and men received training on communication, household decision-making, anger management, and SRH produced similar economic gains for girls. By engaging men as allies, husbands’ clubs created a supportive environment for girls to pursue education, employment, and decision-making within households. This dual approach highlights that providing girls with tools for economic empowerment, alongside addressing gender dynamics within families, yields significant progress.

The Role of Husbands’ Clubs: Engaging Boys as Allies

The study revealed that husbands’ clubs played a pivotal role in enhancing girls’ empowerment. By targeting boys and men, these clubs promoted gender equality through education on life skills and shared household responsibilities. This approach not only improved girls’ economic opportunities but also strengthened their ability to make decisions regarding education, work, and personal matters. Boys and men who participated in these clubs became vocal allies for promoting positive gender norms, contributing to a more supportive environment for girls. The findings show that husbands’ clubs were as effective as direct economic interventions in driving outcomes for girls, reinforcing the importance of including men and boys in efforts to empower women.

Mixed Results from Community Leader Involvement

The inclusion of community and religious leaders added a layer of complexity to the interventions. In some cases, leader engagement significantly amplified the effects of safe spaces, particularly in improving girls’ decision-making power and socio-emotional skills. Communities where leaders were mobilized, in combination with husbands’ clubs, saw substantial reductions in early marriage and pregnancy rates. Adolescent girls in these areas were 36% less likely to be pregnant and 7% less likely to be married compared to control groups. However, the study also noted inconsistencies in SRH outcomes where leaders were involved. In some communities, messaging from religious leaders conflicted with the SRH content delivered in safe spaces, reducing the program’s effectiveness in improving girls’ knowledge of contraceptive methods and menstrual hygiene practices. These findings highlight the need for unified, high-quality messaging and coordination to ensure that community leaders complement program objectives rather than dilute their impact.

Multi-Sectoral Approaches: The Path to Transformative Change

The trial’s most significant finding was the power of multi-sectoral, community-wide approaches to achieving transformative results for adolescent girls’ empowerment. Safe spaces alone provided critical SRH education and mental health benefits, but structural changes in gender norms and economic opportunities required broader interventions. Combining safe spaces with husbands’ clubs and the mobilization of community leaders resulted in the most substantial reductions in early childbearing and marriage, alongside improvements in economic participation and decision-making power. These outcomes underscore the importance of creating an enabling environment where both girls and their communities can challenge entrenched gender norms. The success of husbands’ clubs further demonstrates that engaging boys and men as allies is essential to achieving long-term progress.

The research also reveals that achieving sustainable change requires intensive, high-quality implementation and ongoing community involvement. While significant progress was observed within one year of the interventions, a substantial proportion of girls in the study over 60% were already married or pregnant, illustrating the deeply rooted nature of the challenges. Future research will explore the long-term sustainability of these impacts. A second follow-up survey conducted in 2024 will provide further insights into the persistence of reductions in childbearing and marriage rates, as well as improvements in economic and social outcomes.

The study offers critical lessons for policymakers and development practitioners seeking to address gender inequality in similar contexts. By combining life skills education with targeted interventions for economic empowerment and community-wide engagement, programs like SWEDD can create meaningful, lasting change. The findings demonstrate that empowering girls requires a collaborative approach that addresses individual, household, and community-level barriers, ultimately transforming gender norms and expanding opportunities for adolescent girls.