Experience and Approaches in fighting FGM

Experience and Approaches

Systematic reviews of experiences from many programmes in different countries have provided
knowledge on why FGM/C persists and what elements should be part of the methodology to abolish it. FGM/C interventions should be:
Contextualized:
The local conditions surrounding FGM/C, including the age at circumcision, the
type of cutting, the characteristics of the practitioners and the meaning and justification of the
practice must be the basis for all FGM/C projects.
Community-based.:
FGM/C is a community practice and is therefore most effectively abandoned
by the community acting together. Mothers are often aware that the practice causes harm, but
even so consider cutting to be the best for their daughters and a part of raising them properly.
This obligation is a social convention, and the social pressure tends to perpetuate the practice.
Various community-based approaches have been undertaken successfully. Public declarations of the commitment to abandon the practice have been important milestones and may take various forms, like pledge groups of parents promising not to cut theirs daughters, or a joint public declaration on the part of communities.
Participatory:
The most successful programmes are participatory in nature and imply a shift from
delivering messages and making judgemental statements, to facilitate dialogues. They also imply a shift from individual behaviour to collective change. Interventions need support from local
stakeholders and need to identify change agents.
The kind of support and the choice of change agents will vary, and may include community and religious leaders, teachers and health workers,various social groups and pledge groups.
Creating space for discussions on sensitive issues, in which people feel confident to share their
experience and views openly in a non-judgemental environment, tends to bring down the costs of FGM/C.
Holistic:
Awareness raising and abolition campaigns have a better chance of succeeding if FGM/C
is approached in a holistic way and related to other aspects of people’s lives. Even%