Breaking the Cycle: Child Marriage Plummets in Remote Cambodia as Girls Gain Education and Economic Power

In the remote provinces of Ratanakiri and Stung Treng, a silent but profound transformation is underway. Results from a project led by Plan International Cambodia reveal a dramatic drop in child marriages, correlated with clear improvements in girls' schooling and economic empowerment.

Kanada, a young Cambodian woman with her mother and her daughter, Manaka, 6 years old. Photo credit: Thomas Cristofoletti - Plan International Cambodia

This progress, though local, offers valuable lessons for the entire country, as the Cambodian government develops a national action plan to eradicate this practice.

In the highlands of northeastern Cambodia, the fate of thousands of girls is shifting. Where just a few years ago, dropping out of school to marry before 18 was a common path, a new dynamic is taking hold.

According to the final study of the Time to Act! project (It's Time to Act!), led by Plan International Cambodia in 86 villages, the proportion of 18- to 22-year-old adolescents married before adulthood fell from 26.3% to 9.5%.

Even more significantly, marriages before age 15 have become residual, dropping from 2.5% to just 0.6%.

Kanada, a young woman from Ratanakiri, embodies this break. Married at 17, she was able to open her own motorcycle repair shop thanks to vocational training. "My workshop has completely changed my life, and I'm very proud to run it. I want all girls to continue their studies and build their own future, like I did," she testifies in the organization's report.

Her story perfectly illustrates the correlation highlighted by the project: economic empowerment is a powerful antidote to early marriage. The numbers speak for themselves: access to employment within six months of training jumped from 54.7% to 94.1%, and financial independence after one year now reaches 88.5% of participants.

The Driving Role of School and Community

This decline in child marriage is no accident. It stems from a multisectoral approach that places education at the heart of the strategy. The Time to Act! project achieved remarkable progress in schooling: the completion rate for lower secondary school (grade 9) among girls rose from 36.5% to 64.9%. Meanwhile, access to comprehensive sexuality education nearly doubled, now reaching 96.7% of youth, while gender-sensitive teaching practices have been adopted by a majority of teachers.

These local efforts align with growing national awareness. The Ministry of Women's Affairs, with support from Plan International, UNICEF, and UNFPA, is currently developing a five-year national action plan to prevent child marriage and early pregnancies.

"Early marriage remains a problem, particularly in northeastern regions like Ratanakiri, Stung Treng, and Mondulkiri," acknowledged Sar Sineth, spokesperson for the ministry.

A national consultation is underway to gather recommendations from local stakeholders and youth, to accelerate achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 5 on gender equality.

A Mirror Challenge: Boys' School Dropout

However, these remarkable gains for girls highlight a troubling phenomenon that could, in the long term, undermine social balance. A joint national study by the Cambodian government and UNESCO, published late in 2025, reveals that boys are now more likely than girls to drop out of the school system. For the 2024 school year, enrollment was 65% for girls versus only 57% for boys. At the secondary level, the dropout rate is 17% for boys, compared to 13% for girls.

The study points to multiple causes: economic pressures pushing young men into early work, cultural expectations, or lack of tailored academic support. "National policies have inadvertently overlooked these vulnerabilities," the report notes, calling for a comprehensive strategy to keep boys in school, including strengthening foundational skills and improving rural infrastructure. This male dropout could create a new educational—and ultimately professional—imbalance, posing fresh challenges for equality policies.

Kanada and her daughter, Manaka, 6 years old. Photo credit: Thomas Cristofoletti - Plan International Cambodia

Economic Empowerment as the Keystone

Faced with this challenge, the development of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) emerges as a priority pathway, for both girls and boys. The ILO-China partnership program has enabled more than 78,000 Cambodians to benefit from training, facilitating job access for over a thousand young people. A new memorandum of understanding signed in August 2025 between Battambang Technology Institute and a Chinese technical college aims to train students in future sectors like renewable energy or robotics.

"These results clearly demonstrate that when girls are empowered through education, protection, and economic development opportunities, child marriage rates decline and their futures expand," celebrated Yi Kimthan, interim country director of Plan International Cambodia.

This conviction now guides the action: for the progress seen in Ratanakiri and Stung Treng to spread sustainably, sustained investment from the state and partners is crucial. This involves systematically integrating sexuality education in schools, strengthening child protection systems, and expanding market-relevant vocational training, especially for girls from rural and indigenous communities. The fight against child marriage, far from won, will be won by keeping all girls—and all boys—on the path to emancipation.