The technical note “Gender Transformative Approaches for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation” aims to help implement anti-FGM programmes that tackle root causes of gender inequality and redress the power dynamics and structures that serve to reinforce gender inequalities in societies.

In order to understand why approaches to end FGM must be gender transformative one needs to understand the basic concepts of gender and gender norms. “Gender norms refer to informal rules and shared social expectations that distinguish expected behaviours on the basis of gender. Gender norms are a subset of social norms and are often referred to as gender-based social norms. They dictate how men and women should behave.” UNICEF 2021