Pathways to Choice: Change in Community
In northern Nigeria, many girls leave school early and marry young. This is not simply a personal choice. It is shaped by poverty, very limited access to quality schooling, and powerful social norms. In many communities, it is seen as the most viable path available to girls. At the same time, many families recognize that education and skills can open other paths—but those paths are often difficult to access.
Pathways to Choice was designed to change that.
Developed by the Centre for Girls’ Education (CGE), the program takes a different approach. Rather than focusing on a single solution, it addresses the full set of constraints girls face—education, economic opportunity, and social expectations—at the same time.
The program works at the level of the whole community. It begins by engaging religious and traditional leaders and families. It then brings out-of-school girls into mentored Safe Spaces that meet several times each week in their communities, where girls build relationships with peers and mentors while receiving intensive literacy, numeracy, and life skills training over many months. In the second year, girls are supported to enroll in school or vocational training, at no cost to them or their families.
Pathways to Choice was implemented by CGE in Kaduna State, the Hallmark Initiative in Borno, and IWEI in Kano, with funding from the Ford Foundation.
This community-based approach was rigorously evaluated in 18 communities across Borno, Kaduna, and Kano States. The results were recently published in Nature.
The findings were clear.
Two years after the program began, the share of girls married dropped from 86% in control communities to 21% in Pathways communities—an over 80% reduction in child marriage.
At the same time:
school attendance was dramatically higher—by 70 percentage points compared to similar communities
girls reported stronger social support and confidence
girls’ ability to speak up about whether and when to marry increased substantially
There were also broader effects. Younger siblings—both girls and boys—were more likely to be in school.
Importantly, education alone does not explain these changes. The impact comes from the combination: academic support, economic pathways, and community engagement working together. This coordinated effort shifts not only individual outcomes, but the norms and constraints that shape them.
What underlies this model is not only what is delivered, but how it is delivered. The work is rooted in sustained relationships—with girls, families, mentors, and community leaders—and in consistent presence over time. This makes new possibilities visible and credible, and supports changes that extend beyond individual girls to the communities around them.
Pathways to Choice shows that even deeply entrenched patterns like child marriage can change—when girls have real alternatives, and when communities are part of that change.
The next phase focuses on a new question:
How can this impact be sustained and scaled—while preserving what makes it work?
The Nature article is by Isabelle Cohen, Maryam Abubakar, and Daniel Perlman (2026).