Communities Changing Social Norms to End Female Genital Cutting in West Africa
Author(s)
Parvez Butt, AnamPublication date
2020-10-29Keywords
GenderSocial norms
Female genital cutting
Female genital mutilation
Early marriage
Tostan
Community
Participatory
West Africa
Metadata
Show full item recordPublisher(s)
Oxfam GBSeries
Inspiring Better FuturesDocument type
Case studyDescription
Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program (CEP) illustrates the transformational power of community-led participatory critical awareness raising and social learning processes to empower people, shift norms, behaviours, and inspire a wider movement. An estimated 5.5 million people across 8,830 communities across West Africa have publicly declared their abandonment of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and early marriage, and the movement is still growing. In Senegal, by 2011 5,315 communities had participated in 56 public declarations to abandon FGM/C and it fell by more than half in participating villages. The programme has also had a positive impact across other aspects of gender equality and in governance, education, health, environment, and economy in a range of West African countries communities from eight countries in Africa (Djibouti, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Somalia and Gambia).