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Child marriage has large negative effects on the girls who marry early and their children, as well as communities and societies as a whole. Ending child marriage is a target under the Sustainable Development Goals, but investments to delay the age at first marriage remain limited in countries where child marriage is widespread. As part of a broader argument to make the economic case for ending child marriage, this paper provides a simple approach for measuring the share of early childbirths likely due to child marriage in developing countries. This estimation matters because many of the negative impacts of child marriage on development outcomes for the girls who marry early and their children are through early childbirths – having a child before the age of 18 (for a mother), or being born of a mother younger than 18 (for a child). The estimates provided in this paper suggest that most early childbirths in developing countries are likely due to child marriage.

Reducing gender inequality makes economic sense apart from being the right thing to do. Achievinggender equality and empowering all women and girls is the fifth sustainable development goal and is a top priority for governments. Countries can achieve this goal if they take appropriate steps. This note is part of a series that aims to measure the economic cost of gender inequality globally and regionally by examining the impacts of gender inequality in a wide range of areas and the costs associated with those impacts. Given that gender inequality affects individuals throughouttheir life, economic costs are measured in terms of losses in human capital wealth, as opposed to annual losses in income or economic growth. The notes also aim to provide a synthesis of the available evidence on successful programs and policies that contribute to gender equality in multiple areas and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This note has two main objectives. The first is to estimate potential losses in national wealth due to inequality inearnings between men and women in Uganda. The second is to document the impact of gender inequality in selected other domains, including fertility and population growth, health outcomes for young children, and measures of women’s agency.

The proportions of girls marrying or having children before age of 18 have been declining slowly in Uganda according to data from the latest publicly available Demographic and Health Survey for 2016. Using the latest data, this note updates findings initially prepared for the 10th Uganda economic update. While progress is encouraging, almost one third of girls still marry as children, and mote that one in four girls have their first child before turning 18. Similarly, despite substantial efforts to improve educational attainment, only one in four girls completes lower secondary school, and even smaller proportion completes upper secondary school. The Government of Uganda has adopted a national strategy to end child marriage and teenage pregnancies. Improving girls’ education is also a priority of the government. Unfortunately, the cultural, economic, andsocial conditions that have historically contributed to child marriage, early childbearing, and low educational attainment for girls remain strong. More needs to be done to accelerate progress.To inspire greater investments in adolescent girls, this note analyses the economic and social impacts of these issues in Uganda. The note also suggests potential options for investments.

The relationship between child marriage and fertility can be due in part to the socio-economic and cultural context in which girls who marry early tend to live. But child marriage may also have a direct impact on fertility after controlling for socio-economic and cultural context. Marrying early is often associated with a lack of agency for girls, including in terms of access to family planning that can help delay or reduce births if women so desire. For societies, higher total fertility rates lead to higher population growth, lower growth in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, slower poverty reduction, and difficulties for governments to provide basic services to a growing population. This brief estimates the impact of child marriage on the number of children that women have over their lifetime in Bangladesh, as part of a series of standardized briefs on this topic for multiple countries.