Africa: Communities stop female genital mutilation/cutting

Communities across Africa abandon female genital mutilation/cutting

Over 6,000 communities have chosen to abandon the practice of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), according to a joint United Nations programme designed to eliminate this practice, and the number is growing.

UNICEF and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) are partners in a joint effort to end FGM/C, a practice with serious immediate and long-term health effects and a clear violation of girls’ and women’s fundamental human rights. Female genital mutilation, also called female genital cutting (FGM/C), refers to the removal of all or part of the female genitalia.

“We are working in 12 out of 17 priority African countries and have seen real results - the years of hard work are paying off with FGM/C prevalence rates decreasing,” says Nafissatou Diop, Coordinator of the UNICEF-UNFPA Joint Programme on FGM/C.

“In Ethiopia, the prevalence rate has fallen from 80 per cent to 74 per cent, in Kenya from 32 per cent to 27 per cent, and in Egypt from 97 per cent to 91 per cent. There is still a lot of work to do.”

Three million girls face FGM/C every year in Africa and worldwide, and up to 140 million women and girls have already undergone the practice.

The joint programme encourages communities to collectively abandon FGM/C. It uses a culturally sensitive approach, including dialogue and social networking, leading to abandonment within one generation. The programme is anchored in human rights and involves all groups within a community, including religious leaders and young girls themselves. Rather than condemn FGM/C, it encourages collective abandonment to avoid alienating those that practice it and instead bring about their voluntary renunciation.

“Social norms and cultural practices are changing, and women and men in communities are uniting to protect the rights of girls. UNFPA and UNICEF are working with partners to end this harmful practice in one generation and we believe that reaching this goal is possible,” says a joint UNICEF-UNFPA statement.

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