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Areas of action
Putting an end to female genital mutilation
It is estimated that between about 100 and 140 million women and girls in the world are affected by genital mutilation. Genital mutilation violates elementary human rights such as the right to health and protection of physical integrity.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a collective term for different forms of cutting the external female genitalia. The cutting is often performed by traditional midwives. Many of them use blunt, non-sterile instruments. They frequently perform the operation without using an anaesthetic.
Genital mutilation is not reversible, it inflicts serious mental and physical damage and in many cases ends in death.
FGM is practised in 28 countries in Africa and in a few Arab and Asian countries. It is also common among African immigrant communities in other countries. Social pressure and powerlessness cause many women to accept and perpetuate the ritual. The operation is usually performed on girls between the ages of 4 and 14, but it is occasionally carried out on baby girls a few days old, before marriage or before the birth of the first child.
African activists of both genders, non-governmental organisations and international organisations have been fighting for years to put an end to genital mutilation. The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) also takes firm action on this issue and supports initiatives at national and international level to end female genital mutilation.
The BMZ promotes an integrated approach so that account can be taken of the diverse factors that influence this practice: Education, awareness-raising and dialogue are combined with efforts to boost the effectiveness of state and private sector organisations on a sustainable basis, as well as with policy-advisory services at national and international level.
The following are examples of successful German development cooperation:
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Germany and other donors are supporting the implementation of an anti-FGM Action Plan in Burkina Faso that was elaborated by the government of Burkina Faso.
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A German good governance programme backed the declaration by Islamic clerics of a fatwa against FGM in early 2010. This legal ruling clearly defines genital mutilation as a harmful practice and prohibits it according to Islamic legal understanding. Experience in other countries has shown that official doctrines issued by Islamic scholars have a very positive impact on the fight against genital mutilation.
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German development cooperation brought together women and men of various ages in Mali to take part in dialogues based on trust in the context of promoting basic education (known as "generation dialogues"). The results of an external assessment carried out in 2009 showed, among other things, that 94 per cent of those interviewed who took part in these dialogues stated that they did not want their daughters to be circumcised in future. In communities in which no dialogue had taken place, the figure was only 17 per cent.
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