Adama Ndiaye - Secretary-General of the Ministry of the Family, Women and Children, Government of Senegal - DFID Girl Summit 2014

"The innovation of this plan [the Senegal national plan of action] was the adoption at scale of a human rights based approach to addressing the practice [of FGM] and promoting community development." from the introduction of Adama Ndiaye

Panel Discussion: Spotlight on Progress - "Reaching Millions, Not Hundreds: Experiences in Scaling Up Community Social Change"

Context: This presentation is from one of the 14 "Spotlights on Progress" video-recorded sessions from the Girl Summit 2014, London, United Kingdom (UK). The sessions were organised to share best practice between practitioners, grassroots activists, and government ministers across the issues of female genital mutilation (FGM) (also FGM/C - female genital mutilation/cutting) and child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM). Girl Summit is a project of the Department for International Development (DFID), UK.

Profile of speaker: A featured panelist of this Spotlight session was Adama Baye Racine Ndiaye, Secretary-General of the Ministry of the Family, Women, and Children, Government of Senegal, whose presentation was entitled "Government of Senegal National Plan of Action to end FGM". Ndiaye "was previously the Prefect of Gossas Department. The Ministry is responsible for the implementation of the National Plan of Action on ending FGM/C and additional actions related to ending child marriage. He has a solid professional experience in government administration and local development. Mr. Ndiaye holds a Master’s in Economics from the Université Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar [Senegal]."

Strategy overview: The Secretary-General's description included government cooperation with partners, including Tostan (see related summary below) and communities. The act of a community signing of a pledge to abandon the practice of FGM is one of the strategies used. A year after the Girl Summit, Senegal has "a national coordinating body in place for FGM/C that supports a multi-sectoral approach to ending FGM/C and child marriage. Senegal is improving the functioning of its law enforcement mechanisms. It is actively empowering communities and adolescents to end the practice. Senegal is an active participant in the implementation of global programme on FGM/C." From a UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) study: The Senegalese law prescribes a penalty of up to five years imprisonment for anyone performing, arranging, or assisting FGM/C. Even short sentences are reported to be making a mark on those found guilty, because the women who perform the excision have high social status. Changes in more conservative areas have been approached by working with Muslim clerics to proclaim fatwas (religious declarations) against the practice. In 2011, 760 religious leaders made declarations de-linking FGM/C from Islam, and 50 made declarations supporting the abandonment of the practice. "But rather than a head-on attack, in Senegal FGM/C has been approached as a human rights issue. When, through discussions about human rights, people begin to understand that the high rates of maternal mortality, illness and debility that women have experienced were due in part to the effects of FGM/C, over time many communities spontaneously decide to abandon the practice." The dissemination of the law to communities is reported to be a part of the dialogue in Senegal.

 
Overview of this Summit Session: From the Girl Summit summary document: "We know community-led social change is an effective, long-term strategy to promote abandonment of FGM and child, early and forced marriage. Reaching millions of people will be a key element of success in the global movement to end the practices and change the futures of as many girls. Yet the intensity, cost and technique of community-led social change present important challenges. Experiences in taking what worked with hundreds in one setting and scaling it up to entire districts and nations will be presented in this interactive spotlight...."

The speakers, in order of appearance, are:

Sonali Khan, Vice President, Breakthrough.

Adama Ndiaye, Secretary-General of the Ministry of the Family, Women and Children, Government of Senegal.

Dr. Ben Cislaghi, Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning, Tostan.

Ato Haileleul Seyoum, Director of Women and Youth Mobilization and Participation Enhancement, Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs, Government of Ethiopia, and Dr Annabel Erulkar, Director, Population Council Ethiopia.

Hekate Papadaki, Grants and Development Manager, Rosa Fund.

The session is moderated by Rajesh Mirchandani World Affairs Correspondent/Anchor at BBC News."

Strategy points from the session outline include:

• "Scale Matters - given how widespread these practices are and the numbers involved.
• Girls should be at the heart of any approach. Girls can’t and don’t register complaints after the act. Action must come first to enable girls to have a view - to be able to able to say no and for example resist early marriage for example. Girls clubs and other mechanisms can support this process.
• How girls are valued matter (especially for child marriage) - dowry issues and how girls are seen matters. Push is to get families to invest in education of girls.
• Discourse matters - Issue is to shift the discourse on these issues and how they are talked about. Communities’ deliberations and discussions are crucial. These deliberations change communities’ views. 
• Approaches can transform- Rights based approaches on these issues can challenge the vision that communities have of gender issues and rights more widely.
• How communities function matters - However, when community spaces and debate is restricted and excluded it needs to be opened up before change takes place. Women must join the public space to become actors.
• National leadership and political will matters - governments changing laws and clear messaging has an impact without it things are harder.
• Service providers play a role - health providers (esp. Reproductive health) child workers, education systems etc. all have a role and should be included in any approach. These actors need a shared vision and ambition.
• Religious leaders are important. - In the past child marriage was given support by the church. This must change.
• Linkages matter - Strong link between domestic violence, wider gender relations and CEFM.
• Communications are important - A clear communications strategy using media and other channels are important for scale. National schemes under which communities make public pledges have a role. They can tie in large groups of people.
• Many interventions are driven by limited evidence. - Research and randomized trials are on-going and will give us more information on what works and how. However, these sort of programmes that involve community engagement need to be flexible and learn from the process of implementation using trial and error."

Footage of this (available below) and other "Spotlights" are available on DFID’s YouTube channel.

The Girl Summit is a project of DFID. Click here and scroll down to see the full list of individuals and organisations committed to working on girls' issues, as well as a list of Girl Summit Charter signatories.