Amref Health Africa [to 7 February 2015]
http://amref.org/news/news/

Speed up Efforts to End Female Genital Mutilation, Urges Amref Health Africa
International Day against Female Genital Mutilation – February 6, 2015

The International Day against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), also known as Female Genital Cutting, has been designated by the United Nations to raise awareness about the dangers of the practice. FGM is the intentional invasive injuring of the female genitalia for non-medical reasons. It is a painful damaging of the genitals aimed at subduing women, an extreme form of discrimination against women that reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes. It has been recognised as a severe violation of the rights of women and girls…

…Amref Health Africa has implemented programmes to eliminate FGM since 2007, including regional programmes across East Africa and Ethiopia. Amref Health Africa’s innovative anti-FGM work, especially the community-led Alternative Rites of Passage, has been widely recognised as safe and acceptable to the community.

On this International Day against Female Genital Mutilation, Amref Health Africa renews its commitment to working hand in hand with governments, development partners and civil society organisations to:
:: Explore innovative ways of engaging the communities to accelerate the abandonment of FGM and to inform programming in working with communities
:: Work hand in hand with relevant bodies and institutions to build skills of frontline health workers in dealing with the effects of FGM
:: Mobilise health workers against medicalisation of FGM
:: Increase health education and health promotion among girls and women

Amref Health Africa realises that governments are solely responsible for ensuring the right to health for their citizenry and commits to supporting the governments to meet this objective. To that extent, Amref Health Africa urges governments as well as their development partners to meet the following obligations for accelerating the abandonment of FGM:
:: Allocate adequate resources to support the abandonment of FGM and increase the empowerment of women and adolescents
:: Ensure frontline workers are knowledgeable and skilled in the care of FGM-related complications
:: Support the implementation of innovative approaches to engage communities towards abandonment of FGM
:: Invest in research to understand the underlying factors that cause FGM to thrive.