The Community Gender Transformative Approach (ACT) as a means that promotes the involvement of men from the concerned communities to put an end to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Gender Based Violence (GBV)

After having worked on masculinities and subsequently on the involvement of men in projects aimed at ending FGM, we are continuing with the Gender Transformative Approach for the Community (ACT) with the aim once again to strengthen the involvement of men and boys to put an end to FGM and GBV.  More specifically, the focus is on men and boys from the communities that practice FGM.

The Community Gender Transformative Approach (ACT) is an approach recently developed (in 2021) as part of an action research carried out for two years in Guinea Conakry to end FGM and GBV. The Gender-Transformative Community Approach to Ending FGM and GBV aims to change power relations between men and women at the national level and reduce FGM and GBV.

More and more organizations are calling for profound change and are currently testing new approaches to working on gender relations through gender-transformative approaches. They are including men and trying to deconstruct stereotypes, related power and domination issues. They analyze the links to the patriarchal society which are at the origin of harmful practices such as FGM and in general GBV.

This can be done at an individual level, but the most sustainable thing is to integrate this gender approach from the earliest years in the school curriculum and later in the world of work in order to better involve boys and men in the abandonment of FGM.

The low impact of thirty years of FGM abandonment programs should raise questions about the approaches implemented and the involvement of the communities concerned, such as boys and men, in the formulation, implementation and evaluations. of these approaches.

As mentioned above, several organizations and countries are beginning to develop strategies with a gender approach: that is to say, focus on the root of relations between men and women by trying to deconstruct stereotypes, by discussing masculinities and by questioning the inequalities, power dynamics and male domination carried by patriarchal societies (Some examples are the Rwanda Men’s Resource Center project in Rwanda or Men End FGM in Kenya).

The question of sexual and reproductive health and rights must also be at the heart of programs to dare to address the place of sexuality in general well-being and the impact of FGM on the sexuality of the couple.

It is important that FGM abandonment initiatives are driven by the communities concerned if we want sustainable change and commitment, with flexibility and possibility of adaptation in different contexts.

This is how the approach we are referring to in this note was implemented in order to involve men and young boys from communities affected by FGM at the different levels (individual, family, community, etc.) in the society and to considerably reduce GBV including FGM.

On September 01 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. CET, the COP FGM invites you to the workshop: Gender Transformative Community Approach (ACT) a method that promotes the involvement of men to end FGM and GBV.

We had the opportunity to discuss this with our expert, Fara Djiba, Executive Director at AFASCO, sub-regional and national trainer of the Generations Dialogue approach and on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) since 2014 in Guinea Conakry and who took part in the implementation of this approach.

You can replay the webinar below: