LAWRENCE — Child marriage in Malawi has proven to be a persistent problem. Nearly 40% of girls are married by the age of 18 despite legal reforms.
New research from the University of Kansas draws on insights from those working on the issue in the country. Attempts to combat child marriage are often guided by well-intentioned approaches that do not always align and leave out key stakeholders and local knowledge, according to Linda Banda, a Malawi native and KU alumna.
Banda saw firsthand the negative cultural impact persistent child marriage had. Poverty, abuse and negative health outcomes for young women and their children are common outcomes for those married before 18.
“This is very personal to me. I’ve seen how this issue affects communities in deep ways,” Banda said. “I worked as a child protection specialist for an INGO (international nongovernmental organization) in Malawi and witnessed how child marriage affects girls.
“Around 2013 we started advocating for ending child marriage, and a law setting the minimum age of marriage at 18 — called the Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Act — was enacted in 2015. And then a constitutional amendment in 2017 raised the minimum age of marriage to 18, removing exceptions that had allowed marriage at 15 with parental consent.”
Despite those legal reforms, the practice continued. As a doctoral student at KU, Banda began conducting research on the issue as part of her dissertation with Juliana Carlson, associate professor in the School of Social Welfare. For a recently published study, they interviewed more than 20 people working to end child marriage in Malawi, including local, national and international NGO workers, government officials, faith and local leaders, journalists and other stakeholders responsible for making decisions on which interventions to be implemented on ending child marriage.
“The biggest question I had was, ‘Why are things not changing, even though we have this law?’” Banda said. “We wanted to know how organizations, government actors and communities were approaching this on the ground.”
Interviews revealed that those working on the issue generally followed the guidance of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child or the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The former, a 1989 treaty ratified by nearly 200 nations — not including the United States — focuses on the rights of children.
The latter focuses on women’s rights and gender equality.
Both of those approaches are important, but interviews with practitioners revealed that a singular focus often resulted in groups inadvertently working in isolation from each other or only focusing on one part of a problem.
Child marriage is by definition a problem for both women and children, the researchers write, and interviewees revealed challenges they encountered when pursuing their goals. One example is that organizations that attempted to ensure girls stayed in school by providing books sometimes encountered family and community resentment, including instances where boys who did not receive similar support tore pages out of their sisters’ books.
Interviewees also reported they were often in competition for foreign funding sources to support their work. That often resulted in pursuing goals that were important to the funders but did not always align with local needs or priorities.
The lack of effectiveness was often exacerbated by not understanding culture that led to the practice. Child marriage has a long history in many parts of the world, including a southeast African nation such as Malawi, where cultural history viewed the practice as a way to combat poverty and economic pressures.
Given the numerous factors that contribute to child marriage’s persistence, focusing on one can only be partially effective, the authors argue. For that reason, they propose an African feminist lens to view the problem, one that considers cultural norms and community realities in addition to lenses on children’s or women’s rights.
“Knowing what gets in the way and what lenses organizations use to address these issues is key to this work,” Carlson said. “We found that competition for external funding has proven to be a challenge and that it is not effective to just tell organizations what we want to see.”
A lot of global work on child marriage is through the lens of children’s rights, Banda said.
“That is important, but it does not always consider the whole picture of local realities,“ Banda said. “This perspective, African feminism, helps us think about how change happens in communities. It doesn’t just see culture as a barrier but as a resource to solve problems.”
The study, co-written with Anissa Sheena Chitwanga of Texas State University San Marcos and Pempho Chinkondenji of the University of North Dakota, was published in the Journal of Human Rights and Social Work.
African feminism, which considers relationality, community and cultural embeddedness to understand the issue instead of individual rights claims, as is commonly practiced, can more effectively combat the problem, the authors argue. Study results showed traditions and practices such as rites of passage, age falsification by parents and community expectations indicate marriage is not simply an individual decision. Therefore, rigid adherence to international approaches can overlook cultural realities and as a result be less effective.
Malawi adopted a National Strategy on Ending Child Marriage from 2018 to 2023 which aimed to reduce prevalence by 20%. The study, conducted during that timeframe, showed siloed approaches led to disjointed implementation of strategies. The nation is now working under a 2024 to 2030 strategy that has renewed commitments to coordination among organizations, accountability and cultural relatability.
For their part, the researchers plan to continue researching factors that lead to child marriages, including increases after natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic as well as further exploring the realities of child-to-child marriages and how men, boys and community leaders can be engaged as allies in addressing child marriage.
“An African feminist perspective reframes culture not as something to be discarded, but as a critical arena of engagement — one where harmful practices must be challenged and where community values can also be mobilized to protect children,” the authors wrote.
Journal of Human Rights and Social Work
Meta-analysis
People
A “Girl” or a “Child”? Examining the “Rights-Based” Approach to Child Marriage in Malawi Through an African Feminist Lens
26-Jan-2026