A/HRC/22/55 of Governments indicating the enactment of a legal ban on harmful practices, which may fully or only partially cover female genital mutilation/cutting, child or forced marriage, witchcraft rituals, honour killings and other practices. 71. Less than 30 per cent of respondents indicate 18 as the minimum age for marriage, with younger ages and different thresholds for boys and girls prevalent in a large number of countries. 72. As noted above, over the past few years, law reform on violence against children has gained momentum. However, this wide-ranging process has been insufficient to secure a clear and all-embracing prohibition of all forms of violence. Steady and enhanced efforts are needed in the years ahead and it remains urgent to enact such explicit national legal bans, supplemented by detailed provisions in relevant pieces of legislation to guide effective enforcement. Legislation needs to address the root causes and risk factors of violence, lend effective protection to children in situations of vulnerability and be supported by well-resourced child protection services, well-trained professionals and a wide participatory process of public awareness-raising and social mobilization. C. Sound data and research 73. Despite incremental initiatives to break the invisibility of violence and mobilize action to address it, the global survey confirms that information on violence against children remains scarce and fragmented, with limited data available on the extent and impact of violence against children, risk factors and the underlying attitudes and social norms that perpetuate such violence. As a result, there is a costly impact on child victims and witnesses, their families and society as a whole. 74. While some Governments mention statistical information gathered by certain departments, including health, labour, judicial and law enforcement institutions, very few have periodic analytical reports on children’s exposure to violence. 75. Overall, there is lack of comprehensive and disaggregated data systems to inform strategic interventions. Although 31 per cent of Governments report collecting some data, those efforts are often not child-specific; over 10 per cent indicate no collection of relevant data and around 55 per cent provide no information on this section of the survey. 76. In most cases, information is limited to a few areas, such as health and justice, with limited disaggregation on the basis of gender, age, social origin or disability. 77. The coordination of data sources remains challenging, with multiple institutions gathering and handling dispersed information, based on different definitions and indicators. When a central institution is in place, the information is often collected from limited sources, or only addresses some manifestations of violence or settings within which it occurs. Moreover, there is seldom regular periodicity of data-gathering efforts and lack of cooperation between statistical bodies and institutions responsible for the design and implementation of policies to protect children from violence. As a result, it is difficult to gain a holistic view of the incidence and cumulative impact of violence on children or enable the prevention of violence to have a genuine chance of succeeding. 78. A scarcity of resources and a lack of clear definitions, monitoring tools and indicators remain additional challenges. These factors hamper the collection of timely, reliable and disaggregated data, the monitoring of progress and the evaluation of the costeffectiveness and impact of interventions. Investment in this area remains vital to support effective action. 16