Africa: Some Progress Fighting Fgm - Brief Article

WIN News, Spring, 2000

UN WIRE (Mar. 29, 2000): http://www.unfoundation.org

"While many local, regional and international organizations have attempted to stop the practice through education efforts, 'change has been slow, and the problem has sometimes seemed unyielding,' the Baltimore Sun reports.

After 16 years of public awareness campaigns, Guinea's Coordinating Group on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children last year succeeded in convincing excisors in the city of Kouroussa to give up their lucrative traditional practices: The World Bank will provide funding for microentreprise activities to help former excisors develop alternative ways to generate income.

The Kouroussa campaign followed a similar effort in Senegal. In that country, 148 communities have publicly renounced FGM, thanks in large part to a nongovernmental organization called Tostan. With the support of UNICEF, Tostan was able to spread its educational message. (Editor's Note: In Senegal only a small minority of the population practice FGM. The political leadership, the Wolofs never have.)

In Egypt, the Center for Development and Population Activities is taking an approach known as 'positive deviance' toward FGM. Local teams identify individuals who 'deviate' from accepted traditions by opposing FGM. Then, the 'positive deviants' share their personal experiences and the reasons for their beliefs. The positive deviants include parents, young girls, teachers, health workers, local leaders and villagers."

Editor's Note: A detailed survey by the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) documented in 1995 that 97% of women aged 15-49 are mutilated and that 46% of physicians do the mutilations (see WIN NEWS, summer 1997, p. 31). Though USAID funded Health and Population Programs in Egypt for 20 years, they have never taught prevention of FGM.)