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LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – It will take 100 years to end child marriage if current trends continue, economists warned on Friday, urging governments to spend more on tackling a problem that affects 12 million girls every year.

A study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found global rates of child marriage were declining so slowly the world would miss a target of eradicating the practice by 2030 by many decades.

It will also miss a goal of eradicating female genital mutilation (FGM) by that date, the OECD said in its Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI).

“Progress in eliminating both practices is too slow as people, including women sometimes, are not ready to abandon them,” the OECD said in a statement emailed to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

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