Basal Factors Leading to Child Marriage in Eastern and Western Provinces in Zambia and Efficacious Prophylactic Interfusions

Child marriage has long been a public health concern around the world, because it has the potential to deprive adolescent girls of their sexual reproductive health rights and limits their ability to reach their full potential in life. The prevalence of child marriage has been consistently higher in sub-Saharan Africa than elsewhere and Zambia is not an exception. In Eastern Province of 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 researcher is 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 study conducted a literature review, which combined both existing research data on key influencing drivers of child marriage and evidence on effective prevention and interlocking approaches that address these key drivers from regional, national and provincial levels. A mixture of 35 peer-reviewed scientific articles and 26 other documents and reports were collected via Google scholar & PubMed, reviewed and relevant information was synthesized. The purpose of this study is to obtain better insight into what factors are driving the variant child marriage rates between Eastern and Western Provinces and to provide an overview of what proven child marriage efficacious prophylactic interpolations exist. This will further inform, lobby and advocate for effective policy implementation by the Government Duty Bearers and like- minded institutions such as Non- state Actors and Non- Governmental Organizations.