The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) have called on the government of Ethiopia and its development partners to accelerate implementation of the National Costed Roadmap to End Child Marriage and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
Development Diaries reports that the call was made in connection with the observance of the International Day of Zero Tolerance against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) under the theme, ‘Accelerating Investment to End Female Genital Mutilation’.
About 40 percent of girls in Ethiopia get married by age 18, according to data from Girls Not Brides, a global partnership of more than 1,500 civil society organisations committed to ending child marriage.
Although the prevalence of FGM among adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 dropped from 62 percent in 2005 to 47 percent in 2016, Ethiopia still accounts for 12.5 percent of the 200 million women and girls who have undergone FGM globally.
The National Costed Roadmap, which aims to end FGM by 2025, has an objective of sparing an estimated 3.6 million girls who are at risk of undergoing FGM.
‘We congratulate the Government for their efforts to end FGM by 2025 but we must collectively renew our commitment to ending this harmful practice and work with all stakeholders to change attitudes so that the next generation of girls can live healthier lives’, UNICEF Ethiopia Representative, Gianfranco Rotigliano, said.
For her part, the UNFPA Officer-in-Charge, Esperance Fundira, reiterated the need for the full implementation of the National Costed Roadmap to End Child Marriage.
‘FGM is not only a vicious practice rooted in gender inequality, but it inhibits girls and women from unleashing their potential’, she said.
‘We must reiterate our full support for the accelerated implementation of the National Costed Roadmap to End Child Marriage and Female Genital Mutilation to end this harmful practice’.
It is understood that attitudes towards this harmful practice are shifting with more than seven in ten girls and women opposing the continuation of the practice.
Source: UNICEF
Photo source: UNICEF
