Systematic scoping review of interventions to prevent and respond to child marriage across Africa: progress, gaps and priorities
Objectives Despite the high prevalence of child marriage in Africa, little is known about the current state of the evidence on interventions to prevent and respond to child marriage in the region. The objectives of this systematic scoping review are to describe the breadth of existing evidence on ch...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMJ Publishing Group
2023-05-01
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| Series: | BMJ Open |
| Online Access: | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/5/e061315.full |
| _version_ | 1797834482548473856 |
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| author | Manahil Siddiqi Margaret E Greene Tara F Abularrage |
| author_facet | Manahil Siddiqi Margaret E Greene Tara F Abularrage |
| author_sort | Manahil Siddiqi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objectives Despite the high prevalence of child marriage in Africa, little is known about the current state of the evidence on interventions to prevent and respond to child marriage in the region. The objectives of this systematic scoping review are to describe the breadth of existing evidence on child marriage prevention and response interventions, analyze where these interventions have been implemented, and identify research gaps and priorities for moving forward.Methods The inclusion criteria incorporated publications that: (1) focused on Africa, (2) described interventions to address child marriage, (3) were published 2000–2021 and (4) were published as peer-reviewed articles or reports in English. We searched seven databases (PubMed, PsychINFO, Embase, Cinahl Plus, Popline, Web of Science and Cochrane Library), hand-searched the websites of 15 organisations and used Google Scholar to identify research published in 2021. Two authors independently screened titles and abstracts followed by full-text reviews and data extraction for included studies.Results Our analysis of the 132 intervention studies identified highlights important disparities by intervention type, sub-region, and intervention activities, focus populations and impact. The greatest number of intervention studies focused on Eastern Africa. Health and empowerment approaches were most represented, followed by education and laws and policies. Norms or livelihoods approaches were least represented.Conclusion Our review finds few high-quality impact evaluations, most of which assess cash transfer programmes. There is a need to strengthen evaluative evidence on other intervention approaches including empowerment and norms change interventions, in particular. Given the linguistic and cultural diversity of the continent, more country-specific studies and research published in languages other than English are needed, particularly in high-prevalence Middle African countries. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T14:38:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0179e4e31c6c48618ef5a4c6b9544e8e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2044-6055 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T14:38:39Z |
| publishDate | 2023-05-01 |
| publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMJ Open |
| spelling | doaj.art-0179e4e31c6c48618ef5a4c6b9544e8e2023-05-03T10:00:07ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open2044-60552023-05-0113510.1136/bmjopen-2022-061315Systematic scoping review of interventions to prevent and respond to child marriage across Africa: progress, gaps and prioritiesManahil Siddiqi0Margaret E Greene1Tara F Abularrage2Department of Health Services, University of Washington School of Public Health, Seattle, Washington, USAGreeneWorks, Washington, District of Columbia, USAHeilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York, USAObjectives Despite the high prevalence of child marriage in Africa, little is known about the current state of the evidence on interventions to prevent and respond to child marriage in the region. The objectives of this systematic scoping review are to describe the breadth of existing evidence on child marriage prevention and response interventions, analyze where these interventions have been implemented, and identify research gaps and priorities for moving forward.Methods The inclusion criteria incorporated publications that: (1) focused on Africa, (2) described interventions to address child marriage, (3) were published 2000–2021 and (4) were published as peer-reviewed articles or reports in English. We searched seven databases (PubMed, PsychINFO, Embase, Cinahl Plus, Popline, Web of Science and Cochrane Library), hand-searched the websites of 15 organisations and used Google Scholar to identify research published in 2021. Two authors independently screened titles and abstracts followed by full-text reviews and data extraction for included studies.Results Our analysis of the 132 intervention studies identified highlights important disparities by intervention type, sub-region, and intervention activities, focus populations and impact. The greatest number of intervention studies focused on Eastern Africa. Health and empowerment approaches were most represented, followed by education and laws and policies. Norms or livelihoods approaches were least represented.Conclusion Our review finds few high-quality impact evaluations, most of which assess cash transfer programmes. There is a need to strengthen evaluative evidence on other intervention approaches including empowerment and norms change interventions, in particular. Given the linguistic and cultural diversity of the continent, more country-specific studies and research published in languages other than English are needed, particularly in high-prevalence Middle African countries.https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/5/e061315.full |
| spellingShingle | Manahil Siddiqi Margaret E Greene Tara F Abularrage Systematic scoping review of interventions to prevent and respond to child marriage across Africa: progress, gaps and priorities BMJ Open |
| title | Systematic scoping review of interventions to prevent and respond to child marriage across Africa: progress, gaps and priorities |
| title_full | Systematic scoping review of interventions to prevent and respond to child marriage across Africa: progress, gaps and priorities |
| title_fullStr | Systematic scoping review of interventions to prevent and respond to child marriage across Africa: progress, gaps and priorities |
| title_full_unstemmed | Systematic scoping review of interventions to prevent and respond to child marriage across Africa: progress, gaps and priorities |
| title_short | Systematic scoping review of interventions to prevent and respond to child marriage across Africa: progress, gaps and priorities |
| title_sort | systematic scoping review of interventions to prevent and respond to child marriage across africa progress gaps and priorities |
| url | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/5/e061315.full |
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