Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting Accelerating Change - Original Proposal (2009)

UNFPA and UNICEF will work jointly towards actively contributing to the accelerated abandonment of FGM/C, in specific areas of implementation within 17 countries, by 2012. The focus of this joint proposal is to leverage social dynamics towards abandonment within selected communities that practice FGM/C. The main strategic approach is to gain the support of an initial core group, which decides to abandon FGM/C and mobilises a sufficient number of people to facilitate a tipping point and thereby create a rapid social shift of the cutting social convention norm. A core feature of implementation would be fostering partnerships with government authorities both at decentralised and national levels, religious authorities and local religious leaders, the media, civil society organisations and the education and reproductive health sectors. These partnerships will serve to disseminate acquired knowledge and foster an enabling environment for collective social change towards an FGM/C social

convention shift. Further, it may contribute to an improvement in the wellbeing of girls and women in societies, where the FGM/C is practiced.