|
|
|
| ||||||||||
|
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), sometimes also referred to as female circumcision, is a term that describes a range of practices involving the cutting, removal, and sometimes the sewing up of the external female genitalia for cultural or other nontherapeutic reasons. The United Nations estimates that two million girls undergo FGM/C each year. The possible repercussions of FGM/C are numerous, including psychological trauma, difficulties during childbirth, gynecological problems, and death. The Population Council has conducted research in Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Indonesia, Kenya, Mali, Senegal, and the Sudan to document the extent of FGM/C, the types of cutting that take place, and resulting complications. Council staff members also track attitude changes and document and evaluate interventions to end this practice. The Council's FRONTIERS program, with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), the World Health Organization (WHO), and other partners held a consultative meeting to review methodological issues concerning research on interventions to eradicate FGM/C. Staff members also collaborated with Rainbo’s Research Evaluation and Monitoring Project, which reviewed state-of-the-art FGM/C indicators. The conference proceedings have been published, and workshops are being designed to help develop operations research capacity among nongovernmental organizations in Africa. (more) The Council also organized a conference at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study and Conference Center in April/May 2002 to assess the state of the art in FGM/C research and to organize a research network that will promote high-quality research, wide dissemination of study findings, and better links between researchers and program and policy actors. The International Network to Analyze, Communicate, and Transform the Campaign Against FGC/FGM/FC (INTACT Network) was developed out of the Bellagio meeting. The INTACT Web site is a source of information on FGC/FGM/FC (offsite link). Researchers in Egypt have designed study instruments that will enable nongovernmental organizations and others to assess community readiness for interventions and to produce baseline data for use in tracking behavior change as programs are implemented. Other recent activities include testing a community-based education program to improve women’s reproductive health and eradicate FGM/C (Burkina Faso); undertaking research to examine the extent and causes of the practice, women’s and providers’ perspectives on the practice, implications of female genital cutting on women’s reproductive and sexual health, and possible interventions to eliminate FGM/C (Indonesia); understanding the meaning of FGM/C and medicalization of the practice in the AbaGusii community (Kenya); evaluating a community-based education program to improve women’s reproductive health and eradicate FGM/C (Senegal); providing technical assistance to CARE International for testing interventions to eliminate FGM/C in Africa; and disseminating research results on FGM/C in Africa. An interregional project on dissemination of FGM/C research took place in 2002. A consultative meeting was organized by FRONTIERS and partners to review methodological issues concerning research on interventions to eradicate the practice. The conference proceedings have been published, and workshops are being designed to help develop operations research capacity among nongovernmental organizations in Africa. Projects
Publications/Resources on this issue See Also
Offsite Links
|
|
||||||||||
