Key Project · Campaign & Field
Ending FGM in West Africa
RFLD’s regional campaign to end female genital mutilation and the cluster of harmful practices that sustain it — anchored in Articles 5, 6 and 20 of the Maputo Protocol, powered by community leadership, and centred on the 6 February International Day of Zero Tolerance.
The field
Ending the practices that harm women and girls
Female genital mutilation is one of a cluster of harmful practices — alongside child marriage, widowhood rites, breast ironing, ritual servitude and son preference — that the Maputo Protocol obliges African states to eliminate. RFLD’s campaign works to end them not through condemnation from outside, but through change led from within communities.
West Africa is where the battle will be decided. The subregion contains both the world’s highest-prevalence countries and its most encouraging declines — often across a single border. That is why RFLD works regionally: families cross borders to reach jurisdictions with weaker enforcement, so laws, enforcement and community norms must move together across the whole ECOWAS space.
The 6 February International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM anchors an annual campaign of community dialogue, survivor voices and public commitment. RFLD amplifies the leadership of women and girls, engages traditional and religious authorities, trains journalists in ethical reporting, and documents both progress and the gaps that remain.
The scale in West Africa
The region where zero tolerance must be won.
of women aged 15–49 in Guinea have undergone FGM — among the world’s highest prevalence.
women in Mali have undergone the practice, despite decades of programming — evidence that laws alone are not enough.
prevalence in Benin, Togo and Ghana — proof that abandonment is achievable within one region and one generation.
girls worldwide are estimated to be at risk of FGM every year — most in Africa, many in this subregion.
Prevalence figures are the most recent published UNICEF/DHS estimates for women aged 15–49 and vary by survey year.
One system of harm
The practices we work to end — together, not separately
These practices reinforce one another: a girl cut at nine is married at fourteen; a widow stripped of inheritance cannot protect her daughters. The Maputo Protocol treats them as one system — and so does RFLD.
Female genital mutilation
All forms, including medicalised FGM. No health benefit; lifelong physical and psychological harm. States must prohibit it by law, backed by sanctions.
Child & forced marriage
The Protocol sets 18 as the minimum marriage age and requires free and full consent. Child marriage ends girls’ education and multiplies maternal risk.
Widowhood rites
Degrading rites, forced remarriage and dispossession of widows violate dignity and property rights the Protocol explicitly guarantees.
Breast ironing
A hidden practice inflicted on adolescent girls, often justified as “protection”. RFLD surfaces it in community dialogue where silence protects it.
Ritual servitude
Practices that bond girls to shrines or households in payment of family debts — a form of slavery the Protocol and national laws prohibit.
Son preference
The norm underneath the practices: valuing girls less. Every RFLD intervention works on this root, engaging men, boys and community leaders.
The campaign
Six ways RFLD works to end harmful practices
Community dialogue
Change led from within — sustained dialogue with traditional and religious leaders, excisers seeking alternative livelihoods, and the families who decide.
Survivor leadership
Survivor testimonies published as advocacy evidence, survivors trained as spokespeople, and lived experience at the table where policy is written.
Legislative harmonisation
Working with parliamentarians across ECOWAS to close the cross-border loopholes families use to reach weaker-enforcement jurisdictions.
Continental accountability
Using RFLD’s ACHPR Observer Status and AU mechanisms to hold states to their Maputo obligations — including public engagement with governments.
Media & campaign
The 6 February Zero Tolerance campaign, journalist training in ethical FGM reporting, and a podcast series carrying survivor voices region-wide.
Data & documentation
Rights-violation cases documented in the DΩNÙESÈ Data Center, turning community realities into evidence states cannot dismiss.
The legal landscape
Most states have the law. The gap is enforcement.
The majority of West African states have criminalised FGM, and Article 5 of the Maputo Protocol obliges every African Union member to prohibit it through legislation backed by sanctions. Yet prevalence in parts of the region remains among the highest in the world — because a law that communities do not own, and prosecutors do not use, does not protect a single girl.
RFLD’s answer is regional: harmonise legislation across ECOWAS so no border offers impunity, equip national coalitions to demand enforcement, and track every state’s compliance publicly through our legislative platforms — so progress and failure are both visible.
From the 2025 Annual Report
Impact our partners helped make possible.
Through the African Women’s Development Fund’s Leading from the South initiative, investment in RFLD’s programme to end female genital mutilation has strengthened grassroots movements, shifted harmful social norms, and protected thousands of girls from this harmful practice.
— RFLD 2025 Annual Report · Read the full report (PDF)
Understanding the campaign
Questions, answered.
Why focus on West Africa specifically?+
Why work on several harmful practices at once instead of just FGM?+
What happens on 6 February?+
How can I support this work?+
Accountability & safeguarding
This campaign runs under RFLD’s full institutional framework.
Fourteen ratified policies govern every RFLD programme — including Safeguarding, PSEA/PSEAH, Anti-Fraud and Anti-Corruption, Whistleblowing, and data protection aligned to the AU Malabo Convention and GDPR. Survivor engagement follows our safeguarding and consent standards.
Our ratified safeguarding and protection-from-exploitation policies.
Confidential, tracking-free channel to report concerns or misconduct.
85% of the 2025 budget injected directly into the field; $1.77M managed.
NGOsource 501(c)(3) Equivalent · ACHPR Observer · institutional facts for funders.
A generation free from the blade.
Join the regional movement — fund grassroots organisations, partner with the network, or explore the campaign and the data behind it.