Journal Articles

Stimulated by careful reviews of the literature undertaken by the World Health Organization and Girls Not Brides, in November 2018, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and Girls Not Brides convened experts from academia, civil society, and bilateral and multilateral institutions for a consultation that aimed to better understand what is and what is not known about this relationship, as well as to identify priorities for policies and programs. This article summarizes some key conclusions and recommendations from that convening.

There is increasing interest in the ability of cash transfers to facilitate safe transitions to adulthood in low‐income settings; however, evidence from scaled‐up government programming demonstrating this potential is scarce. Using two experimental evaluations of unconditional cash transfers targeted to ultra‐poor and labor‐constrained households over approximately three years in Malawi and Zambia, we examine whether cash transfers delayed early marriage and pregnancy among youth aged 14 to 21 years at baseline. Although we find strong impacts on poverty and schooling, two main pathways hypothesized in the literature, we find limited impacts on safe transition outcomes for both males and females. In addition, despite hypotheses that social norms may constrain potential impacts of cash transfer programs, we show suggestive evidence that pre‐program variation in social norms across communities does not significantly affect program impact. We conclude with policy implications and suggestions for future research.