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Global action must be taken to stop girls being forced into marriage, International Development Secretary Justine Greening said today, ahead of International Women鈥檚 Day.

In a keynote speech hosted by , and the , Justine Greening said it was time to break the silence on Early and Forced Marriage (EFM) and replicate recent work to put Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) on the global agenda.

One in 3 girls in the developing world will be married by their eighteenth birthday and 1 in 9 is married by age 15, some will be as young as 8 years old. These girls often face immediate pressure to have children, are subjected to violence, drop out of education and are at greater risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. According to current trends an estimated 220 million more girls will have been married as children by 2030.

Justine Greening said:

The first step to tackling EFM and FGM is to make sure the international community is speaking with one voice. Every year 14 million girls and women are forced to marry early or against their will. When a girl cannot decide for herself when to marry and have children, it鈥檚 not just a tragedy for her, it鈥檚 a disaster for development.

It鈥檚 time to break the silence of early and forced marriage and recognise that it is exploitation as serious as any other form of child abuse.

Tanya Barron CEO of Plan UK said:

Early and forced marriage drives girls into a cycle of poverty, ill health, illiteracy and powerlessness. It鈥檚 most prevalent where poverty is rife and where education and health systems are poor.

But as well as economic empowerment, early and forced marriage is first and foremost an issue of rights and gender inequality. It is through empowering girls, boys and community leaders to protect and advocate for girls鈥� rights that we will see an end to this practice.

Lakshmi Sundaram Global Coordinator of Girls Not Brides said:

Child brides are among the world鈥檚 most voiceless and isolated people. We鈥檙e pleased to see that DFID is helping to bring attention to child marriage, a problem once overlooked on the international stage.

We know what it will take to end child marriage, but change won鈥檛 happen overnight. Successful efforts must be grounded in the realities of the places where child marriage is common. That is why we need to support the community-based organisations at the forefront of this issue, working with parents and communities to create a better future for their daughters. It is only by working in partnership over the long term that we will be able to reach all those girls who are being held back by child marriage.

The Department for International Development (DFID) works directly with communities where early and forced marriage is prevalent. This includes a 拢10 million programme in Ethiopia which aims to delay marriage for up to 200,000 girls.

Read Justine Greening鈥檚 speech at the Transfrom Her Future event.

Notes to editors

1. DFID is supporting the growing movement within Africa to end FGM and has established a consortium of leading anti-FGM campaigners to support activists across Africa raising awareness of the pain and suffering FGM causes and showing that we can end the practice

2. is a global children鈥檚 charity. It works with children in the world鈥檚 poorest countries to help them build a better future. Plan鈥檚 鈥楤ecause I am a Girl鈥� campaign aims to highlight the plight and potential of the world鈥檚 poorest girls by securing them an education and support

3. is a global partnership of over 300 civil society organisations across more than 50 countries working to end child marriage

4. The is a diverse, effective and inclusive membership network made up of leading UK-based non-governmental organisations鈥� (NGO) staff, practitioners, consultants and academics working on gender, development and women鈥檚 rights issues