Female Genital Cutting: Breaking the Silence, Enabling Change

This publication examines the occurrence of female genital cutting (FGC) and common rationales for its practice. Historical efforts to eliminate the practice are explored within the context of an emerging human rights framework, and a synopsis of three concrete strategies and their results, implemented by nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) in Egypt, The Gambia, and Senegal, is provided.

The three projects examined were:

• The Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEPDA) Egypt: working in collaborating with four local NGOs, using a Positive Defiance Approach (PDA) to identify “Positive Deviants” (or positive role models) who had withstood social pressures and not had their daughters cut or who advocate against the practice.
• The Foundation for Research on Women’s Health, Productivity and the Environment (BAFROW) in The Gambia worked in collaboration with various stakeholders, community members, circumcisers, religious and local leaders, to design and alternative rite of passage curriculum for the traditionally very important girl initiation ceremonies.
• Tostan, in Senegal, designed and conducted education classes for over 900 women in 30 villages, providing instruction in human rights, reproductive health, problem-solving and health and hygiene.

The final section of the document distills lessons learned from the three experiences and makes recommendations to development practitioners, donors and policymakers as to what stakeholders in the three countries believe to be critical elements for strategies that enable communities to abandon female genital cutting.

Contents of the publication include:
What is FGC?
Applying Global Rights at the Local Level: Three Approaches to Ending FGC
Enabling Change: Lessons and Recommendations Next Steps
Appendix (Consultant participation list)
Bibliography, References, and Suggested Reading

The publishers of this resource maintain, “Despite decades of efforts to end female genital cutting (FGC), an estimated two million girls are at risk of undergoing some form of the traditional practice each year, and of suffering the physical and psychological consequences that can ensue.”