President Yoweri Museveni has expressed frustration with the slow progress in the fight to eliminate Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the region.

In a speech read for him by the Third Deputy Prime Minister, Rukia Nakadama, the President noted that despite the support given to traditional and cultural institutions to facilitate their efforts towards fighting the harmful practice, progress has been slow.

“We strongly recognise the role of elders in community mobilisation for social norm and social behaviour change in order to embrace development. To this end, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) Government reinstated traditional and cultural institutions and gives them financial support to facilitate their work in communities,” he noted.

“We expected this support to translate into elimination of harmful practices, unfortunately, positive change has been painfully slow,” he stated.

Nakadama represented the President at the closing ceremony of the third inter-ministerial cross-border meeting on addressing female genital mutilation.

The meeting took place at Speke Resort Munyonyo, on Thursday.

Despite the slow progress, Museveni noted that there is a notable positive shift in the mindset regarding FGM and that more than 95% of people in practising districts now believe the practice should be discontinued.

He said cultural leaders have a duty to play by facilitating their respective subjects and communities to abandon negative cultural practices and embrace the Government’s development programmes.

“I also urge the elders and cultural leaders to support the Police in strengthening community policing in order to eliminate these harmful practices. Also, bring young people on board to show them the dangers in such harmful practices and their role in abandoning the practice,” he said.

He appealed to the neighbouring countries to urgently address the challenge of FGM, including enacting strong laws, which will stop girls and women from migrating to neighbouring countries to undergo genital mutilation.

Female Genital Mutilation refers to the total or partial removal of female genitalia for non-medical reasons. It violates the human rights and dignity of women and girls and is a form of gender-based violence.

The inter-ministerial meeting brought together ministers from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Somalia to find solutions to the complex negative cultural practice.

The five countries share common borders and the rise of cross-border and medical genital cutting has made it hard for a single country to eliminate the vice.

Globally, it is estimated that 200 million girls and women have undergone some form of FGM in 30 countries to date.

Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Somalia account for almost a quarter of the cases.

The ministers reiterated their commitment to ending cross-border FGM, through implementing the 2019 Mombasa Declaration on ending Cross-Border FGM, securing their home government’s support towards the fight and operationalising regional, national and local level structures to eliminate the practice in the region.

Peace Mutuuzo, the Minister of State for Gender and Culture, said so far, the regional states have all made progress towards ending FGM through, among others, putting in place legislations and policy frameworks that deter the practice.

“We have strengthened our cross-border co-ordination and collaboration. Today, we celebrate the adoption of the Regional Action Plan on cross-border female genital mutilation, 2019-2024, whose goal is to enhance crossborder collaboration among Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda, to end FGM by 2030,” she said.

She also noted that the five countries have scaled up efforts on communication and advocacy, which have greatly improved public awareness and knowledge on the impact of FGM and the demand for action.

However, she noted that they are still faced with emerging complexities, such as the COVID pandemic, which has escalated gender-based violence, resistance by FGM practising communities and new forms of discrimination against uncut women and girls.

Munir Safieldin, the UNICEF country representative, said while there is no data on the impact of COVID-19 on FGM, it is likely that some gains made already in eliminating the vice have been reversed.

“Over the next year, we will need to commit ourselves to robust data collection to understand the state of FGM post-COVID. This will mean doubling our interventions and investments to ensure that any reversals do not become entrenched or permanent,” he said.

Safer rite option

Elders in the Sebei region are mooting a new safer rite of passage for women to replace FGM.

The rite, according to the Sabiny cultural institution’s gender minister, Jesca Kisuro, will involve fathers anointing their daughters with oil and then pronouncing blessings on them.

Statistics show that the FGM prevalence rate in Uganda has dropped from 0.6% in 2006 to 0.3% in 2016.