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📍 DAR ES SALAAM

It promises to be a busy three days ahead as the second International Conference on Female Genital Mutilation gets under way today (October 9) in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam.

From shared experiences to discussions around efforts trained on eliminating genital mutilation of girls and women, a rich agenda has been prepared to discuss a worringly widespread harmful practice.

The conference has been convened by the African Union Commission, which is the African Union's secretariat.

It has drawn the attentions of hundreds of delegates, who are either attending physically here at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre in the port city of Dar es Salaam or will be following along virtually.

In the weeks leading to the conference, Tanzania's community development and gender minister Dr Dorothy Onesphoro Gwajima said the country was ready to host the meeting.

She was quoted as saying they were also ready to provide leadership to accelerate efforts to eliminate the "injurious, violent and harmful practice of FGM" in Tanzania, Africa and the world.

Risky and still common in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, female genital mutilation (FGM) — also referred to as female circumcision — remains a big concern.

It takes on a brutal form involving removing, partially or totally, the clitoris or labia minora, with a misguided aim of reducing libido and preserving women's chastity.

▪️  Law enforcement, collaborations key in ending cross-border FGM

FGM, a harmful practice, is oftenly performed in unsterile conditions

Over 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone the practice, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Because FGM is usually conducted in unsanitary conditions and without anaesthesia, the painful procedure can lead to serious physical, psychological and sexual complications.

And, in the most tragic cases, it can lead to death.

The practice has been outlawed in Uganda, Tanzania and many other nations, with jail terms given to people found guilty of performing it or helping to do so.

Under Uganda's anti-FGM law of 2010, a person convicted of carrying out the procedure is jailed up to 10 years. Aggravated FGM attracts a life in prison punishment.

Yet, worringly, some communities that are hanging on to its deep-rooted cultural connections are going as far as to circumvent existing laws by crossing neighbouring borders to perform FGM.

For years, rights groups have been pushing stakeholders, including governments, to act with a sense of urgency to eliminate FGM, with the ambitious global target set for this being the year 2030.

In Dar es Salaam meanwhile, the conference on FGM will, among many other things, look to discuss ways of  unlocking the potential of girls and women.

It will rally for a 'change in a generation', which is the theme of this edition.

▪️ Achieving 2030 target 'needs all hands on deck'

Julius Nyerere Convention Centre is the venue for the Second International Conference on FGM

This conference is part of implementing the Transformative Agenda 2063 on “The Africa We Want”.

Burkina Faso hosted the inaugural edition in 2018, which adopted the “Ouagadougou Call to Action on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation”. 

It led to the African Union Saleema Initiative on Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation designated an African Union champion on eliminating FGM.

Now the second edition will also seek to build on the progress made from Ouagadougou, recognizing the work of five Eastern Africa countries — Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia — to end cross-border FGM, while securing similar action across the continent. 

States and regional partners are expected to provide leadership on ending FGM medicalization.