Two agencies of the United Nations (UN) have raised concerns over cross-border female genital mutilation (FGM) in eastern and southern Africa as they seek to scale up efforts to end FGM.
Specifically, the two UN agencies – United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) – called on the countries in the regions to increase financial resources for the fight against the FGM practice.
Ending FGM by 2030 is part of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as it aims to ensure good reproductive health and gender equality for all.
‘Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’, the SDG three reads.
Under SDG five, which aims to ‘achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’, the UN also works to end FGM across the world.
Immediate effects of FGM on girls include severe pain, haemorrhage, ulceration of the genital region; while long-term consequences include complications during childbirth, the formation of cysts, dyspareunia (painful sexual intercourse), as well as psychological effects.
An estimated 200 million girls and women have been subjected to FGM in over 31 countries globally, with 68 million girls further at risk of being cut by 2030 if interventions to end FGM are not ramped up.
The UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of FGM noted that Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda account for almost one quarter of global FGM, with nearly 50 million girls and young women from East Africa having undergone FGM.
The programme identified Kenya as a destination for cross-border FGM practice, noting that women and girls travel to the country to practice FGM in an attempt to evade prosecution for a known criminal offence in their countries.
Data from UNICEF shows that around four million, or one in five, women and girls have been subjected to FGM in Kenya.
Although Kenya criminalised FGM in 2011, with a punishment of three years imprisonment, and a $2,000 fine, the practice persists because some communities regard it as necessary for social acceptance and increasing their daughters’ marriage prospects.
‘According to the latest findings from a report commissioned by UNICEF and UNFPA, in collaboration with the Kenya Anti-FGM Board, 70 percent of survey respondents from Uganda, and 60 percent from Ethiopia, travelled to Kenya to undergo FGM’, a joint statement by UNFPA and UNICEF read.
‘While significant progress has been made in the fight to end female genital mutilation (FGM) in East and Southern Africa, the goal to achieve complete eradication is being thwarted by girls being taken across borders to avoid the full might of the law in their own countries.
‘This new trend sets a worrying precedent, and it proves that gains should never be taken for granted when it comes to this and other devastating practices that harm the health, well-being and futures of women and girls.
‘FGM continues to be carried out widely in border communities, where girls are at higher risk of being cut, subjecting them to physical and psychological trauma, and lifelong repercussions for reproductive health’.
The UN agencies also noted that the positive attitude of younger generations towards FGM alongside effective legislation and community sensitisation projects have recorded impact.
‘We applaud recent advances made at the policy level, such as the regional inter-ministerial meeting to end cross-border female genital mutilation in Mombasa, where ministers of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda signed the inter-ministerial declaration to end cross-border FGM’, the statement added.
‘In many regions around the world, including eastern and southern Africa, we are seeing a decline in the prevalence of FGM. In East Africa, generational declines in the practice are evident. In Ethiopia, FGM rates have gone down from 79.9 [percent] in 2000 to 65.2 [percent] in 2016′.
The UN agencies further called on the civil society and other development partners to scale up advocacies and investments towards the elimination of FGM.
Source: UNFPA
Photo source: Kim Nowacki
