The Break Free! Consortium in Zambia is – through a mixture of interventions that include lobby and advocacy – working towards reducing child marriage in Eastern province in Zambia, a province with a high child marriage rate (45.4% of women aged 20-24 were married by the age of 18 in 2018).

The Break Free! partners, consisting of SRHR Africa Trust, Plan Zambia and Faweza, are interested in learning from what happens in the Western province, as this province has a significantly lower child marriage rate (22.6%), while having a higher poverty level than Eastern province and a similar teenage pregnancy rate (1 in 3 girls aged 15-19 years).

The purpose of this study is to obtain better insight into what factors are influencing the different child marriage rates between Eastern and Western province and to provide an overview of what proven child marriage prevention interventions exist. This will further inform lobby and advocacy interventions of the Break Free! Consortium in Zambia and beyond.