1. Ending FGC in Africa: A Look at Four Approaches
November 6, 2000

2. Best source on this subject
1999 World Health Organization report: “Anti-FGM Programmes in Africa: What Works and What Doesn’t”

3. The approaches Criminalization Education Substitutive ritual
Intra-marrying pledge associations
Medicalization (On Wednesday)

4. Criminalization In 1990s, growth in international pressure
modest growth in number of African governments banning FGC
of 24 countries with FGC, 8 have national bans

5. “Success” of criminalization
Criminalization supported by some anti-FGC groups as creating “supportive context”
PR offices and media highlight anecdotal “successes”: example of Burkina Faso’s National Committee on Excision

6. General governmental lack of will and means
6 of 8 countries with national bans have no budget or special office to investigate cases
Burkina Faso and Ghana have budget and personnel, but few witnesses
Burkina Faso: since 1990, only 36 cases have gone to trial, only 10 are in jail
Ghana: since 1994, only 2 trials, both acquitted

7. “Reactance” Clandestinity Rashes
Drives FGC underground: night-time rituals, in forest instead of village; lookouts
Rashes
Kenya in 1992; Sudan in 1995; Gambia early 1990s
fears of new laws or enforcement lead to rashes
overall average decline in age of cutting (by 4-5 years)
decline in ritual (fear of discovery, disconnection from age)

8. Criminalization makes education more difficult
Hard to undertake thorough education in context of fear of jail
“How do you discuss something that isn’t supposed to be happening? The girls are afraid we will turn them in to the authorities.”

9. Educational programs
70% of all anti-FGM work on NGOs is devoted to raising awareness of medical consequences
women’s health workshops
literature dissemination
media

10. The impact of such programs: a mixed bag
Education an essential precondition for behavioral change
But where the main activity is simply education, change is spotty and slow
Mali: in one study, only 2% of women exposed to workshops said they were convinced excision causes severe health problems
Burkina Faso: after 6 years of educational campaigns, only 19% of exposed women convinced of dangers of FGC

11. Information often irrelevant or inaccurate
Anti-FGC campaigns emerged out of heat of 1980s: used El-Dareer data
“This isn’t what we do here!” (Gambia)
“Bolokoli cannot obstruct menstruation!” (Mali)
“But no excisor forces herself on parents!” (Burkina Faso)

12. Information often abstract and time-consuming
“What do I care about all these numbers?”
“For this I gave up a morning in the market?”

13. Information often offensive
“Excisors do what they do from love and caring. Not to ‘butcher’ anyone!” (Egypt)
TV info-mercial showing old man informing on co-villagers (Burkina Faso)

14. But… educational programs can work
In some villages in Eritrea, up to 50% of girls now disapprove of FGC
In many villages and towns with high-quality programs, attitudes are changing: in Gambia, growth of anti-FGC sentiment in targeted villages, up to 60% (Association for the Promotion of Gambian Women’s Health -- AGPWA)

15. Features of effective educational programs
Up-to-date, accurate, realistic information
Hands-on projects for improvement of women’s lives
“Working” seminars
Work through pre-existing women’s groups
Based in learner-generated materials: proverbs, plays, etc.
Non-directive, non-preachy

16. But…attitudinal change is not the same as behavioral change
In Eritrea, good educational campaigns since late 1980s
50% of girls and young mothers disapprove/have serious doubts about FGC
95% of girls continue to be cut

17. Substitute rites of passage
About 20% of all anti-FGM programs are experimenting with these
Most successful: some villages in Kenya and Gambia

18. “Cutting with words” in Gambia
Format of traditional ritual
girls sit for 12 hrs/day
eat low to ground
elder women discipline and teach
girls dance, drum, feast, sing, make a pledge

19. Why it seems to be working
Framed as a “revival” of sacred traditions
Framed as a way to “discipline” youth
Anti-FGC message surrounded by lots of “secret” knowledge about women’s health
Excisers treated with great respect

20. Criticism of the new rituals
In Gambia: “What we need is not a new ritual that once again teaches girls obedience and their proper role. We need to teach girls to be themselves and to be free, not to be subordinate. . . I am against FGC not just because of the cutting, but because of what it represents: the same old patriarchal values!”

21. Intra-marrying pledge associations
Just starting in Senegal: perhaps the most promising initiative of all
July 31, 1997: village of Malicounda made a public declaration to abandon FGC
Today: 30 villages throughout Senegal have done this

22. How can they have done this?
Proximity to Wolof
Deep education program
village income-generating projects
broad health project (anti-diarrhea)
“Ritual” justifications increasingly seen as hypocritical
school at odds with seclusion
growing awareness that it is un-Islamic
declining age of girls cut: inconsistent with initiation