Sandberg-Backed Study Says Aid Cuts Erode Child Marriage Decline

A new study backed by former Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg finds that recent cuts to humanitarian and development assistance could slow or even reverse progress on ending child marriages, which hurts the global economy.

The analysis, by an institute at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and the Center for Global Development, found that the world economy loses as much as $175 billion every year from lost productivity and increased health risks because of child marriage. That would amount to about $2.5 trillion by 2040. According to the report, it will take $1.3 billion per year over the next five years to reduce the rate of child marriage from 1 in 5 to 1 in 7 in that time frame.