The End FGM EU Secretariat welcomes a new team member: Anaïs Delaunay! Anaïs is our new Policy and Advocacy Assistant and will be supporting the overall advocacy work of End FGM EU at the national, EU, and international levels, as well as support with the organisation of the European Week of Action for Girls (EWAG) and with updating the Network's online interactive map. Read her full bio here.

We also are pleased to announce the return, in February 2023, of our Director, Anna Widegren, from maternity leave. This means that Emilie Jarrett, interim Director in her absence, has left End FGM EU for new adventures. Thank you, Emilie, for all your work as the lead of the Secretariat!

The End FGM European Network has had the pleasure of reuniting our Members in our new monthly Membership Forums: a space for our Members to connect, debate and make plans. With three editions under our belt, we are confident that this 2023 novelty will bring us worthwhile exchanges. 

Speaking of reuniting our members, we will soon have two occasions of getting together: the 2023 Network General Assembly in Brussels on the 6th and 7th of June and the member-hosted Knowledge Sharing Event. Network Members can apply to host the latter event in their own country! 

Every year, we use our Annual Campaign as a way to raise awareness on a specific aspect of our work to end FGM in Europe & beyond. In 2023, we are asking the questions: what is the best path to end FGM? What can grassroots expertise teach us about concrete ways to navigate it?

The 2023 Annual Campaign of the Network “A roadmap to end FGM” seeks to answer these questions by showcasing examples and first-hand experiences of promising practices to tackle FGM in Europe. It will be based on the Network’s mapping of FGM laws and policies in Europe as well as individual stories of people who are involved in the movement to end FGM or affected by the practice. 

Let's have a look at everything our Ambassadors and Youth Ambassadors have been up to in the spring of 2023. From advocacy videos to community workshops, our Ambassadors have been busy these past few months.

Several meetings organised by UN Women took place in March to celebrate the official induction of new delegates. The great news is our Youth Ambassador Sherifat Adeniyi was nominated as a UN Women UK Commission on the Status of Women Delegate!

As part of the Network's Annual Campaign for 2023, End FGM EU published a tutorial of its Interactive Map of FGM in Europe. Check it out and see how easily this resource can be navigated with all its amazing functions!

The Strategic Plan is the most comprehensive indicator of the Network’s objectives and desired outcomes for the next years. Our Strategic Plan for 2023-2027 was designed with the help of a consultant and with the active participation of the Network Secretariat, our Members, Board and Ambassadors as well as key external partners and donors. Read it to see where we are heading in the next 5 years!

To meet the EU's vision of addressing mental health in a comprehensive way, End FGM EU offers a contribution of the promising practices it has identified regarding support services for Survivors and calls for the implementation of these practices at the wider EU level.

We are pleased to announce that at the beginning of this year we addressed Sweden with a letter of recommendations for their semester as President of the Council, based on the core values of the EU regarding the prevention of violence against women and girls and the commitment to gender equality.

On 6th February 2023, the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM, End FGM European Network held an event at the European Parliament, co-hosted with the Presidency of the Council of the EU and Members of the European Parliament. The event launched the Network's Annual Campaign for 2023. “A roadmap to end FGM: stories of change from the ground”. It was a space to discuss ways to end FGM by the fast-approaching 2030 deadline. 

On the 8th of March, End FGM EU co-hosted, with our partners of the Global Platform for action to end FGM/C, an NGO-CSW67 Parallel Event, titled 'There's an App for that? Technological Innovations and change towards ending FGM/C'. Activists & digital innovators gathered to discuss the future of awareness-raising and the use of technology in ending gender-based violence and female genital mutilation.

From the ratification of the Istanbul Convention and the UNFPA visit to Brussels, FGM's Advocacy Department tells us what to keep an eye on these months.

End FGM EU together with its partners from the Global Platform for Action to End FGM/C and the Inter regional Coalition are organising a pre-conference event dedicated to FGM on the 16th of July ahead of the Women Deliver Conference. More information to come on registrations!

The Global Platform for Action against FGM/C will also be sending a delegation to the conference itself, please let us know if you are planning to be in Kigali as well, so we can make sure to coordinate our actions when there! 

End FGM EU began a new stage of its European Solidarity Corps project ‘Understanding Community Voices’. 

We are currently looking for anti-FGM activists from 6 countries (AU, ES, FN, IE, NL, SE) for a brief online interview, with the aim of discussing their experiences and needs. 

End FGM EU is looking for a consultant to support the development of a position paper on Female Genital Mutilation and Religious Discrimination. More info below.

Deadline by 26th April 2023.  

On April 7, we celebrated World Health Day by raising awareness about medicalisation and the dangerous myths behind it. 

We posted a reel on social media where we outlined why medicalisation is still harmful and a form of violence. We encouraged our audience to read End FGM EU's position paper on the topic in order to find out more.

On April 11, we celebrated the International Day for Maternal Health and Rights.

We shared our Support Services for Survivors resource and reasserted our commitment to every person's right to respectful, quality, and comprehensive maternal health care, free from discrimination or obstetrical violence.

On the 21st of March, we shared our commitment to a world free from racial discrimination. We took to social media to draw attention to our position paper about the importance of intersectionality & anti-racism when it comes to anti-FGM activism. 

On the 18th and 19th of February, End FGM EU Youth Ambassadors came to Brussels to begin a very exciting project: the Purple Chair Podcast, funded with the support of Erasmus+, which gives a platform to anti-FGM activists and empowers young voices. 

In March, End FGM EU, along with partners MIGS (Cyprus) AIDOS Italy, APF (Portugal), and Gams Belgium, kicked off the End FGM E-campus project. The project will develop a new online learning and information platform for FGM professionals dealing with the practice in Europe.

After a successful implementation of the CHAIN project on FGM and Early and Forced Marriage, End FGM EU is proud to join its follow-up: the Join our Chain project. The project kicked-off in March with a meeting in Berlin with partners Terre Des Femmes (Germany), ActionAid Italy and AkiDwa (Ireland).

On February 6th,  AIDOS launched the video Gender transformative approaches to ending Female Genital Mutilation, produced with support from the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Program for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation and Spotlight Initiative to Eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls. 

AkiDwA has been working hard on FGM in 2023, springing into the new year with several publications, events and community activities. As part of a brand new support programme that they began in February, AkiDwA has been delivering capacity-building training to a cohort of women since February, and the Graduation ceremony will be held on the 21st of April in Dublin.

The African Women’s Organization organised and coordinated the project “Training for Multiplicators to prevent Violence on Women and Girls", leading trainings in Vienna, Graz and Linz. They also attended the EU “Conference on prevention models to address the demand that fosters trafficking for sexual purposes” organised within the Swedish EU Presidency. 

During the NGO CSW67 Annual Forum on March 17th, 2023, the Belt of Somali Women hosted a panel discussion on the elimination of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) across all Somali regions. The panel included renowned activists Zahra Naleie from FSAN, Asha Ismail from SaG-SaG, and Ifrah Ahmed from the Ifrah Foundation respectively.

On March 8th, with the occasion of International Women's Day, FEA, Lessan e.V and Himilo launched a social media campaign to raise awareness on the role of men to promote gender equality and fight against all form of gender-based violence, including FGM.

The FLHR coordinated a joined statement demanding specific criminalisation of all forms of FGM. The FLHR also sent its statement to the Committee of the Parties on the implementation of the Istanbul Convention in Finland and shared its views on FGM and honour-based violence. 

On International Women's Day, FSAN organised an afternoon of activities for the women of Rijswijk. The event was attended by Mayor Huri Sahin. Our Senior Ambassador Ahlam Aziz spoke directly to the mayor about the importance of FGM prevention in the community.

This manual produced by FSAN concerns the working method for the key persons working to stop FGM and other harmful practices.

This tool was elaborated by GAMS Belgium with the partners of Réseau Bruxellois MGF and of Réseau Wallon MGF, with the legal contribution of INTACT. The purpose of this toolkit is to better identify and protect girls at risk from FGM, acting as a detector of facts that should arise caution in professionals. 

This first quarter of 2023, UNAF continued with their projects in prevention and care of female genital mutilation, awareness of sexual and reproductive health and rights and specialised intercultural mediation.

Les Orchidées Rouges present their animated film to raise awareness against female genital mutilation, now adapted in English in order to broadcast the knowledge about different FGM types to wider audiences. 

On the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM, Les Orchidées Rouges inaugurated their new medico-psychosocial institute in Lyon, which is the first socio-therapeutic support structure for women and girls at risk or Survivors of excision and/or forced marriage in that region of France.

LESSAN's project "Men Standing-up for Gender Equality - Amplifying Change", a role-play game created with the project partners Femme Entraide et Autonomie in Paris and Himilo in Amsterdam, has reached an exciting next stage in development.

Médicos del Mundo Spain and Médicos del Mundo Spain Navarra created two videos to raise awareness about the struggle to end FGM with the occasion of 2023's International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM.

Our colleagues from the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies, Susana Elisa Pavlou (Director) and Christina Kaili (Senior Researcher - Project Coordinator) participated at two events of the CSW67 organised by the American University of Beirut, the Asfari Institute and the Debs Center, New York Office.

Terre des Femmes launched the new EU co-funded project "Join our Chain" on 1 March. A successful kick-off meeting with partner organisations Action Aid Italy, AkidWa and End FGM EU took place in Berlin on 16-17 March.

Our friends at Sahiyo produced a resource for those who want to learn how to engage in dialogue about female genital cutting and use digital tools to bring social and political change.

Anti-FGM Youth organisation, Scarlet Udaan, put together a social media post to highlight the fantastic work of women activists and raise visibility for their efforts.