Promoting Gender Equality

Working Together to End Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting

Accelerating Change: UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme

Female genital mutilation, or cutting, predates Christianity and Islam - it is thought to have originated in the time of the pharaohs. UNFPA and UNICEF, through a joint programme launched in 2007, are leading efforts to end this persistent violation of the basic human rights of girls and women in one generation.

That is the ambitious goal of the Joint Programme on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting launched in late 2007. Called "Accelerating Change", it covers 17 countries (see below). By 2012, the two agencies, working closely with governments, NGOs, religious leaders and small community groups, hope to bring about a 40 per cent reduction of the practice in target communities, and to have at least one country declared free of FGM/C. Reaching that benchmark will depend on full funding. Generous contributions from Norway, Italy, Ireland and Austria (totalling $10 million) have gotten the programme running. Another $34 million is needed for the first five-year cycle.

Building strong partnerships

The Joint Programme works closely with the Donors Working Group on FGM/C, a network of public and private agencies from around the world helping to mobilize resources. Together they agreed on a Platform for Action: Towards the Abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting that summarizes key elements of a common programmatic approach. The platform is based on an in-depth analysis and evaluation of programme experiences supported by national governments and non-governmental organisations working on the ground. The analysis was also informed by social science theories and human rights perspective and it highlights which approach works and why.

Creating a critical mass for positive change

Although FGM/C has been shown to have many harmful effects, both physical and emotional, the practice is sustained by a set of social rewards, including the idea that girls will face shame and social exclusion, including diminished marriage prospects, if they forego the practice.

That is why a number of culturally sensitive strategies are employed to encourage large core groups to abandon FGM/C together. These include are media campaigns, community debates, garnering the support of stakeholders (especially professional associations, religious leaders, parliamentarians, civil society and NGOs),encouraging group commitments to abandonment, and legal measures.

The idea is to set in motion a dynamic for positive change in which a core group enlists others as a way of changing social norms and improving marriage prospects of girls who have not been cut. When the group is large enough to protect the social status of its members, the abandonment becomes self sustainable. Once it reaches a 'tipping' point, change can become rapid and universal.

Achievements to date

As described in detail in its 2008 Annual Report, the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme has initiated activities in eight countries, including lobbying for enactment and enforcement of laws, completion of baseline studies to facilitate monitoring of results, building media campaign, and training of health workers on management of the complications of FGM/C. The programme has enlisted religious leaders and scholars in several countries to speak out against the practice. It is also organizing a technical consultation to address a relatively new trend -- the medicalization of the procedure by doctors or other trained health care providers in clinical settings.

At the global level, the programme also was instrumental in the issuance of an interagency call to all States, international and national organizations, civil society and communities to uphold the rights of girls and women and push for an end to female genital mutilation/cutting.

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