– As the world marks the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), the United Nations Population Fund has warned that 23 million additional girls in West and Central Africa could be subjected to the harmful practice by 2030 unless governments and partners sharply accelerate prevention efforts.
The warning was issued Thursday by UNFPA’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Dr. Sennen Hounton, who described the next five years as a decisive window for action.
“This is not just another awareness day,” Hounton said in a message marking the observance on Feb. 6. “It is a moment of reckoning for the rights, health and futures of millions of girls.”
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A Regional Epicenter of Risk
Female genital mutilation, Hounton said, remains one of the most persistent human rights violations affecting girls in the region, which is home to 17 of the 27 African countries where the practice is most prevalent.
He stressed that FGM violates multiple fundamental rights, including the rights to life and health, freedom from torture and degrading treatment, gender equality and the rights of the child.
“There is no medical, cultural or religious justification for this practice,” Hounton said. “It is a profound violation of a girl’s bodily integrity.”
Progress Too Slow to Meet 2030 Target
Globally, more than 230 million women and girls alive today have undergone FGM, UNFPA estimates, with about 4 million girls at risk each year, half of them under the age of five.
If current trends continue, Hounton warned, an estimated 23 million more girls will be cut by 2030, the deadline for achieving Sustainable Development Goal 5.3, which calls for the elimination of FGM worldwide.
While progress has been made, he said it is not happening fast enough.
“Half of all progress achieved in the last 30 years has occurred in just the past decade,” Hounton noted. “But to meet our 2030 target, the rate of decline must be 27 times faster.”
That acceleration, he said, would require protecting roughly 4 million girls every year who are currently projected to undergo the practice.
Funding Gaps Undermine Gains
Hounton said the challenge is being compounded by declining global funding for gender equality initiatives and growing resistance to women’s rights.
He warned that the cost of inaction is already high, with health systems spending an estimated US$1.4 billion annually to treat complications linked to FGM, a figure expected to rise if prevention stalls.
By contrast, he said, investment in prevention yields significant economic and social returns.
“For every dollar invested to end FGM, there is a return of ten dollars,” Hounton said. “An investment of $2.8 billion globally could prevent 20 million girls from undergoing the practice.”
What Works — and Must Expand
The theme for this year’s observance, “Towards 2030: No End to FGM without Sustained Commitment and Investment”, underscores the need for long-term strategies rather than short-term campaigns, Hounton said.
Evidence shows that progress is strongest where education, community engagement, healthcare systems and sustained financing intersect, particularly when grassroots movements are empowered to challenge social norms.
He urged governments in West and Central Africa to integrate FGM prevention into health, education and economic programs, strengthen domestic financing, engage traditional and religious leaders, and use technology to reach remote communities.
UNFPA-UNICEF Programme Shows Results
Hounton pointed to the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation as a model for coordinated action.
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Launched in 2008, the program operates in 18 countries, including eight in West and Central Africa, and supports legal reform, community-led abandonment initiatives, and survivor services.
To date, the program has helped protect more than 1.1 million girls under age 14, supported public abandonment declarations by over 50 million people across 21,700 communities, and provided care and protection services to more than 7 million women and girls.
A Closing Warning
Hounton said the responsibility to end FGM extends beyond governments to families, communities, religious leaders, the private sector and international partners.
“The stakes could not be higher,” he said. “Every policy decision, every public declaration and every dollar invested brings us closer to a future where a girl’s body is respected and her potential is protected.”
“We have the tools,” he added. “What we need now is the will.”