Informing legislative change to ban child marriage in Peru

In the past decade, over 4,000 child marriages were registered in Peru.

Now, in the culmination of over a decade’s collaboration with country partners, the Young Lives team's longitudinal research evidence and policy engagement with Congresswoman Flor Pablo Medina of have directly informed a change in the law, banning marriage with minors under the age of 18.

This change in the law aims to protect thousands of vulnerable girls from child marriage and informal unions, particularly those from poorer households and among indigenous communities who are most at risk.

Young Lives is a unique longitudinal study of poverty and inequality that has been following the lives of 12,000 children in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam since 2001. Find out more at www.younglives.org.uk

Developing Impact winner at the 2025 Social Sciences Impact Awards. The Impact Awards are supported by the University of Oxford’s ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, in partnership with Oxford Brookes University.