The African Union, under the leadership of His Excellency Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, President of the Republic of Burkina Faso, hosted an international conference on FGM themed; “Galvanizing Political Action to Accelerate the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation by 2030”.
The conference took place from 22 - 25 October 2018 in close partnership with the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation. Others present were Mrs Mariam Lamizana, President Inter African Committee, Fatoumata Ndiaye, Deputy Executive Director UNICEF, who spoke on behalf of the United Nations, and H.E. Mrs Amira El Fadil Mohammed, African Union Commissioner for Social Affairs. UNFPA’s Executive Director, Dr. Natalia Kanem also participated in the opening via video.
The conference attracted more than 400 participants from 33 countries; 23 of which were African countries represented at a governmental level with 12 represented at a ministerial level, alongside a delegation from Yemen and delegation from Indonesia represented on a ministerial level. Additionally, the participation included parliamentarians, the Inter African Committee (IAC), UN agencies, End FGM European Network, traditional and religious leaders, FGM survivors, media, youth networks, and international, regional and national civil society organizations. Development partners including the European Union, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, and Sweden were actively present at the conference.
The conference was comprised of two parts: The Political Dialogue and Technical Dialogue (Agendas). The political dialogue took place on 22 and 23 October and was successfully concluded with the presence of the President of Burkina Faso, Mr Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, and the First Lady, Madame Sika Bella Kaboré who both pledged their commitment to end female genital mutilation and agreed to be Champions of the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation.
During the political dialogue, Nafissatou J. Diop, the Global Coordinator UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme to Eliminate Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) gave an overview of the situation on Female Genital Mutilation globally, and within the regions affected, the impact of the practice, the status of its elimination and what more needs to be done. She indicated that only 3 countries out of 28 may achieve the SDGs if current pace of intervention is maintained.
"There is a need to accelerate actions to protect the 50 million girls in Africa and 68 in the world," Diop says.
A high level panel on the investment and resource commitment to the elimination of female genital mutilation focused on discussing strategies that member states can use to mobilize and allocate decent and consistent amounts of home grown technical and financial resources towards eliminating female genital mutilation in Africa.
The session emphasized the importance of local resources in ending female genital mutilation in a sustainable manner. Five member states including Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Guinea, Kenya and The Gambia participated in the discussion, which revolved around, (1) member states having specific budget lines in their national budgets for ending female genital mutilation, (2) how member states are mobilizing these resources, (3) and how to increase the funding for member states' national budgets.
A high level panel on political ownership of female genital mutilation elimination by 2030 was held to help understand the mechanisms that have been put in place by countries to address SDG target 5.3 on the elimination of female genital mutilation, political actions, multi-sectoral response, and coordination mechanisms, and to see how progress is being monitored by governments.
The photo shows representatives from Egypt and Indonesia participating in the political ownership dialogue.
As part of the political dialogue, the Youth Panel opened the floor for a dialogue with young people. Young advocates and delegates from the African Union Commission Youth Division, The Girl Generation, as well from Kenya, Gambia and Burkina Faso shared their insights and their advocacy work to eliminate female genital mutilation, urging political leaders to listen to the youth in their countries and involve them more in the efforts made to eliminate this harmful practice.
The session emphasized on the importance of youth having systematic engagement with the different stakeholders including politician, policy makers, leaders and authorities at different levels.
Latty from Burkina Faso, whom we heard her story earlier this year during the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM, renewed her commitment as a champion of eliminating female genital mutilation and raised her voice again for actors at all levels to work together towards a world free from female genital mutilation by 2030.
"I will fight FGM to protect my sisters from this horrendous practice" - Latty, Burkina Faso to the left.
A conversation with first ladies of Burkina Faso and Niger was organized as part of the political dialogue to respond to the urgent need of eliminating female genital mutilation. The first ladies shared their commitment and dedication to;
- support the Heads of State and Government in mobilization and advocacy efforts,
- make community visits accompanying religious and village leaders,
- mobilize resources to support partners and programs working on the elimination of female genital mutilation,
- and push for integrating more educational programs on female genital mutilation within schools.
Following that, a panel on community perspective took place focusing on the experiences of countries adopting different approaches and strategies on social mobilization at a community level to better understand the links between the different interventions in order to promote the elimination of female genital mutilation and to also identify the best practices that can be scaled up from these contexts and experiences.
Many community members who were present at the conference shared their experiences on best practices and what needs to be done to accelerate the elimination of female genital mutilation. Imam Cisse Djiguiba Abdallah from Cote D'Ivoire, pledged his commitment and invited actors at all levels to renew their commitment to end female genital mutilation.
On the second day of the conference, a panel discussion took place with development partners supporting the elimination of female genital mutilation, including the European Union, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, and Sweden to discuss how their partnership could strengthen the current efforts of local communities and political actors in order to to accelerate the elimination of female genital mutilation, and to also for development partners to give their recommendations to states and other partners on the mobilization and pooling resources for programs and interventions addressing female genital mutilation. Some of the key recommendations made were;
- the importance of internal and local resource mobilization,
- the need for a map allocating the available resources at the program level,
- the need to focus on media campaigns in order to put the debate on the elimination of female genital mutilation back to public space,
- encouraging state empowerment for resource mobilization,
- the African Union's role in putting a results framework in place that provides information on the progress made, so member states implement their commitments.
"We hope to use all available means to establish a partnership at local a level with agents of change like UNFPA and UNICEF as well as the communities who work towards accelerating the elimination of female genital mutilation." - Thierry BARBE, the head of the EU cooperation in Burkina Faso.
At the last day of the Political dialogue, an adoption of the Ouagadougou Call to Action on Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation was delivered by H.E. Mrs Diaby Mariama Sylla, Minister for Social Action, the Promotion of Women and Childhood of Guinea.
The political dialogue was concluded with the Conference Declaration and handing over to H.E. Mrs Amira El Fadil Mohammed, African Union Commissioner for Social Affairs (in photo) and a closing statement by the H.E. Burkina Faso, President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré and the launching of the African Union Campaign on Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation. The Campaign's vision is to keep all girls Saleema (Arabic), Intact (English), Indemne (French), Todo (Portugese), Kamili (Kiswahili) and in other languages around the world, which means "full, Intact, without Female Genital Mutilation".
The technical dialogue started on 23 October, 2018 with a welcoming note by Nankali Maksud, Senior Adviser and Team Leader Harmful Practices at UNICEF. The opening session emphasized on the importance of adopting an innovate approach for the elimination of female genital mutilation by 2030, the importance of reporting on the practice of female genital mutilation and the need for member states to sustain accountability in translating all the recommended action points by the conference outcomes.
The technical dialogue included a series of panels on exchanging best practices in programming community mobilization and the adoption of the Social Norm approach, and programming law enforcement and service delivery. These sessions were designed for participants to share their experiences and learn from different countries' experiences on the approaches and strategies adopted. For example, Eritrea's experience showed that community mapping, which entails the analysis of the community's in relation to female genital mutilation, is an effective approach that has shown results in;
- reducing resistance to change,
- helping to visualise change in a systematic way,
- de-linking the female genital mutilation practice from religion, fidelity and purity through community dialogues,
- and empowering individuals.
The technical dialogue also included a session on monitoring and reporting on Female Genital Mutilation focusing on the indicators of change and on sharing experiences and challenges of administrative management, information systems, monitoring approaches and measuring social norms indicators.
Moreover, FEMNET, SONKE Gender Justice, and Equality Now led a session on strengthening regional collaboration and accountability, where the three organizations emphasized the need for strengthening coordination and joint advocacy, adopting nuanced and contextualized approach, and making the issue an agenda by all countries including those non-practicing countries as they receive migrants from practicing communities.
Utilizing developments in the technology space, particularly for communication is critical in efforts to foster social norm change. Several NGOs alongside Nigeria shared their experience in working with the media and using the virtual world to amplify the social change, connect people and share good practices and results from research within an innovative and developing technology space. For this reason, the technical dialogue included a session on: working with the media within an innovative and developing technology space.
Throughout the session, Global Media Campaign and Community of Practice (COP-FGM) focused on capitalizing on experiences of utilizing modern media tools and approaches, tapping on investments from Governments, civil society organisations and communities, seeking to promote south-south collaboration, particularly in sharing experiences.
The Community of Practice on Female Genital Mutilation (CoP FGM) is a network of professionals from Africa and Europe striving to improve the quality of prevention and support for women and girls affected by female genital mutilation. This CoP is a part of the project, Building bridges between Africa and Europe to end female genital mutilation, led by three NGOs AIDOS, Equilibres & Populations and GAMS Belgium and funded by the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation.
The conference included an exhibition entitled, Female Genital Mutilation: At Risk 68 Million Girls, which is designed to encourage global community members to celebrate the successes that have been achieved over the past decades in the urgent need to eliminate female genital mutilation.
The adolescent girls featured in the exhibition represent a new generation of leaders. Each one of them was born into a community that has traditionally practiced female genital mutilation, and yet, after becoming educated about the risks of this harmful practice, they have become champions to end it.
Latty, a champion of eliminating female genital mutilation from Burkina Faso was featured in the exhibition and was also an active participant at the conference. She stood in front of hundreds of people, including political leaders, parliamentarians, decision makers and actors of change, raising her voice and sharing her experience as advocate in her community.
The exhibition celebrates the work being done in a number of countries where communities have come together through family, medical, religious, and academic collaborations to support the elimination of female genital mutilation and to protect young women and girls.
Participants had an opportunity to learn about stories of different community actors and from different regions of the world, where female genital mutilation is practiced.
The exhibition called all visitors to join the effort made to eliminate female genital mutilation by making their commitments to ensure that 68 million more girls are not subjected to this human rights abuse.
A commitment tree was designed and placed at the center of the exhibition to attract visitors to make their commitments and receive a note of appreciation from the tree itself. Many participants were excited to share their commitments, including political leaders, representatives of countries, civil and local organizations, while many others renewed their commitments encouraging their governments to do the same.
The photo shows the First Lady of Burkina Faso and the Commissioner of Social Affairs for African Union making their political commitment.
The conference received high coverage on local news, in addition to social media by UNFPA HQ, UNFPA Burkina Faso, UNICEF Burkina Faso, UNICEF Protects, Burkina Faso President's page, local and Intl' organizations working on female genital mutilation, and many other actors and entities interested in the issue.
Below are some coverage and videos shared from the conference.
Credits:
UNFPA