Frontline activists and leaders in the fight against female genital mutilation, which has affected more than 230 million women and girls worldwide, have welcomed an unprecedented $15.5m (£11.4m) fund aimed at creating “unstoppable momentum” to finally end the practice. The launch of the fund comes as women’s rights are increasingly under attack and donor funding is in sharp decline, particularly for work led by FGM survivors in local communities. It is thought to be the largest single philanthropic contribution to ending the practice of FGM.
The United Nations has set a goal of elimination by by 2030, but progress is not on track as funding declines and legal protections are challenged. Funding received by the largest initiative to end the practice – a joint programme operated in 18 countries by the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, and the UN humanitarian organisation for children, Unicef – fell by 45% last year, from $29.6m to $16.3m. The Her Horizon Fund has been seeded with $14m from the Wallace Global Fund, plus an additional $1.5m contribution from an anonymous donor, making $15.5m in total.
The aim of Her Horizon Fund, set up by the US-based Wallace Global Fund, is to pool $100m from donors to reach a “tipping point” towards ending FGM within a generation. Ifrah Ahmed, a Somali-Irish activist and survivor of FGM who set up the Ifrah Foundation to end practice in Somalia, where it is nearly universal, said: “By giving $14m, the global fund will ensure activists can continue their work in this area.” UN funding worth $300,000 to her organisation was cut by UNFPA last year, but Ahmed managed to raise money from elsewhere. The Ifrah Foundation has helped push for anti-FGM legislation in Somalia, she said.
Three of Somalia’s seven federal member states have enacted anti-FGM laws, while in two other states bills banning the practice have been endorsed by cabinet and are awaiting parliamentary approval, albeit with opposition by religious leaders in some areas. Advocates warn that while international recognition of FGM as a human rights violation has grown, and countries such as Burkina Faso, the Gambia and Kenya have criminalised the practice, progress remains fragile. In recent years, survivors and frontline groups have been trying to protect gains made over several decades.
The Gambia’s supreme court, for instance, is considering a constitutional challenge to the country’s 2015 ban on female genital mutilation and cutting. The case follows a 2024 parliamentary effort to repeal the ban, which lawmakers rejected after months of debate, amid strong resistance from women’s rights groups. In Sierra Leone, the new Child Rights Act does not prohibit FGM, despite sustained campaigning from rights groups.
Susan Gibbs, the Wallace Global Fund’s senior adviser on women’s rights and FGM, said: “Female genital mutilation is a global crisis, an extreme manifestation of gender-based violence and violence against children, and a public health emergency. But there have also been anti-rights pushback and political crises. Obviously, donor funding is in decline.
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