Urgent investment needed to meet UN goal of eliminating FGM by 2030

More than 2 million women around the world have experienced genital mutilation, according to the United Nations, with around 4 million girls at risk every year. As it marks the annual International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM, the agency warns that funding is key to stamping out the practice, which has regained ground during the Covid pandemic. 

Female genital mutilation (FGM) includes all procedures that involve altering or injuring the female genitalia for non-medical reasons and is recognised internationally as a violation of human rights.

For 2022 the theme for the annual United Nations Day is “Accelerating Investment to End Female Genital Mutilation”.

“Every year, over 4 million girls are at risk of this extreme form of violence. Sadly, the Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on health services and put even more girls in jeopardy,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres wrote in his statement issued on 26 January.

“With urgent investments and timely action, we can meet the Sustainable Development Goals target of eliminating female genital mutilation by 2030 and build a world that respects women's integrity and autonomy,” he said.

Funding gap

The branch of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) dedicated to sexual and reproductive health says that “while an estimated $2.4 billion is needed to achieve the 2030 goal in 31 priority countries, only $275 million is expected to be spent, indicating a resource gap of about $2.1 billion.”

The NGO World Vision (Vision du Monde) has reported an alarming trend in certain countries, that of FGM being carried out by health workers within medical structures. Nearly one out of four girls (52 million around the world) have been operated on in this way.

The NGO denounces carrying out a dangerous practice under the false legitimacy of a medical service.

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Director of the French branch of Vision du Monde Camille Romain des Boscs told RFI that this trend can be explained by the fact that opposition to the practice is in fact increasing, and therefore partisans are seeking ways to legitimise their actions.

"Over the last 20 years, women have increasingly said they want this practice to stop. For example, in West Pokot, where our organisation is present, more than 9 out of 10 people said they wanted to see this tradition disappear. This is despite the fact that it's a region where three out of four girls have been circumcised."

Looming poverty

According to the UN, the Covid-19 pandemic has raised the risk for girls to undergo the practice by disrupting preventive programmes or with school closures that parents can use to give their daughters more time to heal. 

The crisis has also meant that some women have returned to traditional practices to sustain a living for themselves and their families.

"In the countries where this practice is prevalent, families have seen a sharp drop in their revenue due to the health crisis. The threat of poverty has lead families to push their daughters into forced marriages. And to prepare their daughters to become "good wives" they turn to the FGM ritual," Camille Romain des Boscs explains.

"Poverty has also pushed women who practiced the tradition into picking up their tools again as a way to feed their families."

Girls' empowerment

In Sierra Leone, putting a stop to FGM fits in to the daily work of the We Yone (“our own”) Child Foundation.

"Despite the public education to end FGM, Sierra Leone still continues to practice FGM on a large scale," We Yone founder Santigie Bao Dumbuya told RFI. 

"The lack of effective laws is a huge challenge. Also, there is no sustainable alternative means of earning for the heads of the Bondo secret society that practices FGM," he explains.

His organisation focuses on education, livelihood and women and girls' empowerment in slum and rural communities of KrooBay, George Brook and Kamakwie Karene District and Port Loko District.

One of We Yone's international partners is the project known as "One Thousand Voices", an immersive sound installation produced by Gabonese contemporary artist and cultural activist, Owanto, in collaboration with documentary filmmaker and contemporary art producer, Katya Berger.

Santigie Bao Dumbuya says so far some 678 girls from primary schools in Freetown slums have been exposed to women's stories of FGM recorded in the project.

Lifting taboos

The country where FGM remains most prevalent today is Somalia, where a national Health and Demographic Survey 99 per cent of women between the ages of 15 - 49 have been subjected to female genital mutilation, mostly between ages five and nine.

The survey also reports that 72 per cent of women believe it is an Islamic requirement, though some religious leaders have said Islam condemns it.

While there is no national legislation outlawing the practice, Puntland state passed a FGM Zero Tolerance Bill in 2021.

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FGM is not reserved to the African continent. In France, more than 125,000 women have experienced excision – a figure that has more than doubled in the last 10 years, according to World Vision.

Camille Romain des Boscs says education and awareness is the way forward, particularly in places where the subject is still taboo. Both men and women have a role to play in protecting girls and eliminating this tradition.

"With the Big Dream project in Kenya for example, young boys learn to see young girls who are not circumcised in a new light, and learn to reject these practices," she says. "In 10 years, more than 5,000 children have been made aware of the importance of eliminating sexual mutilation in the West Pokot region."