Girls Not Brides

Girls Not Brides is a global partnership of more than 800 civil society organizations all around the world committed to ending child marriage and enabling girls to fulfil their potential. They are an umbrella organization that does the research and effectiveness studies that are used to provide roadmaps for local partners to work together.

Their research is bringing local, community organizations together to be stronger and more effective. Girls Not Brides works with experts to create theories of change and roadmaps for local organizations, but their strategies are member tailored to address specific issues that members identify in their communities.

In 2017, on the national level, they shifted their focus from “securing commitments to ending child marriage” to “ensuring the implementation of these commitments.” Girls Not Brides members have already had success with governments in Chad, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, and Zimbabwe using their Checklist for National Strategies to End Child Marriage to develop their policies to end child marriage.

On the individual level, Girls Not Brides members, such as DALIT in Bangladesh, have successfully interceded to stop planned child marriages before they happen. Rupa in Bangladesh is one girl whose marriage was cancelled. After her protests had no effect, representatives from DALIT met with both families and explained the negative effects of child marriage as well as the country's laws. Rupa said, “My parents and the bridegroom agreed to cancel the wedding. I’m happy to be able to continue my studies. I don’t want to be a child bride.”

Girls Not Brides’s research and the subsequent resources and support allow member organizations around the world to work more effectively and therefore have a larger impact on the lives of young girls.

Read the mission statement.

Read the strategy for 2017-2020. 

Bangladeshi girls say no to child marriage in their own words.