EU Development Cooperation

An estimated 100-140 million women living with FGM worldwide have had their sexual and reproductive rights violated and may not be able to realise their full potential as women, as mothers and wives, as farmers and workers in their society.

There is a need for an enabling environment at the political and legislative level. The health sector must be fully involved in the prevention of FGM as there is a risk of the increased medicalisation of the practice. Teachers and the education sector are strong allies in activities to promote awareness and empowerment of children and youth. The culture sector (media, entertainment) is crucial to disseminate information and to promote an open dialogue on a sensitive issue like FGM.

In many developing countries these sectors of government are suffering from a lack of resources – financial resources, human resources and technical expertise. Development cooperation can play a very important role in supporting the in-house capacity at a government level.

While European Commission development assistance has already been given to projects on FGM in third countries, there is a lack of a coherent approach to FGM in EU development cooperation.

The EU, in particular the European Commission and the EU Member States, should use its considerable power as a global actor to actively promote the eradication of FGM worldwide and build bridges with African stakeholders in this joint struggle. The EU is well placed to take a lead on combating FGM in development cooperation through the combined EU official development assistance, its membership in the Donors Working Group on FGM, its voice in international fora (OECD Development Assistance Committee, United Nations), and its partnership with regional organisations and third countries.

WHAT CAN THE EU DO?

The END FGM-European Campaign urges the European Commission and the EU Member States:

• to address the issue of FGM in the framework of the political dialogue with partner countries and regional organisations and discuss how to best implement the commitments taken in international and regional treaties as well as in partner countries’ national legislation
• to address the issue of FGM in the policy dialogue with stakeholders relevant to this sensitive issue in the national context. It is imperative that women’s civil society organisations and human rights activists already working on ending the practice of FGM be included in these dialogues, together with girls and women directly affected by the practice, community leaders, religious leaders, teachers, health workers and government officials both at local and national level.
• to employ the established guidelines on human rights defenders in relation to the women and men who are threatened when speaking out against the practice
• to mainstream its commitment to combat FGM across several sectors of development assistance, including health, governance, education and culture

The campaign urges the European Commission:

• to include in its annual country reviews an assessment of FGM prevalence and efforts to end this practice, and where applicable (i.e. in coordination with other donors and in partnership with third countries) include measures to combat FGM in Country Strategy Papers (CSPs) and in National Indicative Programmes (NIPs)
• to complement the effort of targeting FGM through Country Strategy Papers by providing grants for macro and micro projects to combat FGM

• to design and develop a module on FGM, as part of a wider training programme on the EU's human rights commitments, that includes relevant international, regional and national legal instruments, promotes understanding of its cross-sector dimensions and gives examples of current best practices on promoting abandonment. This module should form part of the core-curriculum for staff at headquarters and at partner country level

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• Read how the practice of FGM threatens the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals here (PDF)