The Girl Generation: Support to the Africa-Led Movement to End FGM/C
The Girl Generation is a UK-government funded programme designed to reduce the rate of female genital mutilation or cutting in Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal, and Somaliland, in line with the goal to end FGM/C by 2030.
What is the Girl Generation?
The Girl Generation: Support to the Africa-Led Movement (ALM) to End FGM/C is an ambitious UK government-funded five-year programme that aims to achieve an accelerated reduction in the practice of FGM/C in Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal, and Somaliland.
It does this by:
- Building and testing girl-centred interventions to learn more about what works to end FGM/C
- Taking the learning, evidence, stories and activism that the programme generates to extend, or scale, its impact to more girls and their communities
A grassroots movement
Together, these two programme parts aim to accelerate positive changes in social attitudes towards ending FGM/C, and strengthen the evidence base for what interventions work (and don't work) to end FGM/C in different, diverse communities.
This is in service of a broader vision of a world in which girls and women can exercise their power and rights, have expanded choice and agency, and be free from all forms of violence. Its approach is gender transformative, girl-centred and community-led.
The Girl Generation is underpinned by the evidence that social movements must be built from the ground up. Grassroots organisations are in the best position to understand the dynamics of change around FGM/C decision-making. This programme will therefore be led by their expertise, placing girls and young women at the heart of programme design, implementation, and evaluation.
Who is involved?
Led by Options, in partnership with Amref Health Africa, ActionAid, the Africa Coordination Centre for Abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation (ACCAF), Orchid Project, The Population Council, and the University of Portsmouth, the consortium is delivering the programme until 2026.
Together, the partners bring unparalleled global advocacy and convening power for end-FGM/C efforts within Africa and on the global stage, as well as deep links with communities and networks of activists across the continent.
Amref is delivering the Girl Generation programme in Kenya (Narok) and Senegal (Sédhiou). Other implementing partners are leading the programme delivery elsewhere in Kenya and Senegal, as well as Ethiopia and Somaliland.
How is the programme structured?
The programme strategy is to co-create, implement, test and adapt interventions to address FGM/C at multiple levels of society in each of the selected locations.
These inputs are tested at the individual, community, county (or, sub-national) and national levels to learn what works, to adapt activity as we learn, and to work to scale the activities to accelerate positive change in social attitudes to ending FGM/C.
Scaling strategies include: social diffusion (a process of social change, meaning the spread of a one-way change of behaviour from person to person); evidence and learning; strategic communications; movement building; and integration of end FGM/C into health education systems and other sectors including WASH and education.
What has the programme achieved so far?
Our girl-centred programme interventions include:
- Community dialogues that seek to change attitudes, beliefs and behaviour (including inter-generational forums and couples’ dialogues)
- Support and training for networks of change agents who conduct awareness-raising at community level: including girls, women, teachers, and health professionals
- School clubs, where boys and girls follow a specially-developed girl-centred curriculum that covers rights, FGM/C, gender roles, other forms of violence, and protection mechanisms.
- Support for the mental health and well-being of survivors, as well as leadership training
- Support for in-person and digital movement-building
- Advocacy and campaigning, to create an enabling environment
- Data collection, informing the generation of research and evidence
- Development of a girl-centred training guide to be used by teachers to facilitate conversations with girls and boys on a range of topics including rights, gender, and violence
In Kenya we have achieved Proof of Concept, meaning we have learned what works best, and are working on scaling strategies to expand our reach.
In Senegal, we are working on proving the concept with 'input' activities and adaptations across multiple social levels. Click here to watch more about the people who drive The Girl Generation work in Senegal.
Images: (banner) Coumba Aw, president of the girls' club in Sedhiou, Senegal at a girl champions meeting (c) Amref Health Africa; Coumba Aw (R) and fellow champion (c) Amref Health Africa; Aissatou Gadjigo, girl champion from Sedhiou, Senegal (c) Amref Health Africa / Jacques Manga
