COURSE ON ADVANCES IN SOCIAL NORMS AND
SOCIAL CHANGE on 5-16 JULY 2010 (Penn-UNICEF
summer programme)
REPORT:
“SAFETY NET” INITIATIVE FOR GIRLS
ESCAPING FEMALE GENITAL
MUTILATION/CUTTING (FGM/C) AND
EARLY MARRIAGE
Florence Gachanja
UNFPA-Kenya
Executive summary
FGM/C has been widely practiced by many communities in Kenya. Even where
parents/families know of the harm it brings to their daughters, they have continued to cut
them as they believe that the girl will become a good wife, brings honor and status to the
family.
For a long time, Kenya has had several interventions on raising public awareness. These
are mainly small-scale and include, Alternative Rites of Passage (ARP), Agents of
change such as community members, including religious leaders and safety nets for girls
running away from home to avoid FGM/C.
In the recent past, other interventions initiated include, the GOK/UNFPA/UNICEF Joint
Programme on accelerating abandonment of FGM/C, a partnership of the government,
media, faith based organizations, civil society organizations and local communities. The
objective of the Joint Programme is to contribute to the accelerated abandonment of
FGM/C in one generation, with demonstrated success in 17 countries in Africa by 2012.
The strategies for implementation of the above programme include: i)Community
Dialogues and Sensitization forums ii) Working with Council of elders and Religious
Leaders iii) Working with the Youth iv) Capacity Building initiatives iv) Building
networks v)National advocacy work with Parliamentarians vi) , Media and Government
ministries
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In spite of the above initiatives, the problem of FGM/C still persists in Kenya and this
could be because empirical and normative expectations and networks were not analyzed
in the initial stages of programmes. These would have assisted in the design of
programmes that are community-led and address issues of concern to those communities.
For example, the safety net programme was poorly designed and that is why some of the
families/community continues to reject their daughters who refuse FGM/C.
Programmes that have targeted girls and set up safety nets have concentrated on solving
the problem of girls running away from home as a result of sensitization without
involvement of influential members of the community and by so doing, they have tried to
solve the problem which has resulted to another problem of the parents refusing to take
their daughter back home. This happens because the initial approach was wrong and the
community views the project as an outside intervention.
From the strategies discussed in this course, the most successful approaches are those
where communities are allowed to discuss their values, define their problems and identify
their solutions in order to have a collective change of empirical expectations and avoid
looking at an initiative as an outside intervention and hence are able to accept changes as
this poses no threat to their values.
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1) Background information
1.1) The situation of FGM/C in Kenya
Female Genital Circumcision FGM/C is a deep-rooted traditional practice that precedes
and was considered a prerequisite for marriage in some communities in Kenya.
According to Kenya Demographic Health Survey (KDHS) 2008, FGM/C prevalence is
,27% down from 32% in 2003 (KDHS). However, there are regional variations e.g. North
Eastern Kenya 97.5% and western Kenya 0.8% (KDHS 2008). The age at circumcision
varies from 0-20 with less % of young women getting circumcised. For example, 14.6%
FGM/C prevalence for women between 15-19 years compared to 48.8% of women
between 45-50 years. The KDHS 2008 also showed that prevalence of women with no
education was 53.7% compared to 19.1% for women with secondary education. Reasons
given for the practice include religion and culture.
1.2) Tasaru Ntomonok Initiative and the Tasaru Rescue Centre for Girls
The project design and what was done
Tasaru Ntomonok Initiative (TNI) is non-profit making, community-based organization
in Narok District. It was started with the aim of providing a “safety net” for girls running
away from their homes to escape FGM/C and early marriages. This was the result of an
increase in demand for such services due to awareness creation by other organizations
working in Narok in Girl Child Protection and Education programmes.
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TNI has a rescue centre- Tasaru Rescue Centre for Girls- built by TNI friends from VDay in the USA. UNFPA has supported TNI to mount sensitization campaigns. UNFPA
also supported construction of a classroom at the centre for tutoring girls who have never
been to school in preparation for enrollment at the nearby schools. Currently the centre is
catering for over 50 girls in primary and secondary schools.
After the awareness on dangers of FGM/C in the community and in schools, some of the
girls refuse to undergo FGM/C and run away from home. They either run to Tasaru
rescue center, or go to the chief, DO or DC offices. Some of these girls are referred to
Tasaru center while others are forced to go back to their homes.
In collaboration with the Provincial and District Administrations, other NGOs/CBOs,
Children Department-Ministry of Gender and Social Services, and village elders, TNI has
reconciled some girls with their families and facilitated their re-integration into
communities. This is a lengthy and delicate process, which requires a lot of time and
commitment from players, thus necessitating the rescue center. Sometimes the
reconciliation fails and girls are forced to remain in the rescue center for years
In this community, FGM/C is part of a traditional initiation rite from childhood into
adulthood. It involves a lot of instruction on how to conduct oneself in womanhood but
unfortunately it culminates in FGM/C. Alternative Rites of Passage (ARP) has been
designed to offer the same instruction without the cut. For example TNI, with support
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from UNFPA has organized colorful ceremonies for girls in August and December every
year. So far, over 500 girls have undergone Alternative Rites of Passage (ARP).
TNI provides counseling for those who have undergone FGM/C and sensitizes and
mobilizes religious/ community leaders, teachers, traditional circumcisers to support and
advocate for the elimination of FGM/C and rehabilitation of FGM/C and forced marriage
victims. In addition to this, TNI promotes basic reproductive health services and
HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns.
This project was designed to address the problem of girls running away from home to
avoid FGM/C as a result of sensitization on FGM/C by various stakeholders in this
district. Since the girls had nowhere to go, TNI decided to start a rescue center where
girls would be sheltered before negotiations are carried out with families/community.
The goal of these negotiations is to allow the girls to go back home, be integrated back
into their communities and to convince the families to promise not to circumcise the girls.
This has only worked for very few girls. Some girls would go back home only to be
circumcised while others would be threatened with FGM/C and would runaway back to
the rescue centre. The fact that girls are separated from their parents is not good for a
community because that is not what any family would like to see but the social norm is so
strong that they would rather obey the social norm than take in their daughter who has
refused FGM/C. the project also organized Alternative Rite of Passage for girls in the
community.
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Another aspect of the practice is the income earned by the circumcisers, either cash or in
kind. Efforts instituted to abandon the practice should therefore include ways of
addressing “the loss of income” earned by circumcisers. UNFPA supported a women’s
group to start income generating activity and a few former circumcisers have been
incorporated in this group.
Challenges/What went wrong
In the initial stages of the programme, it seems the various organizations working in this
area failed to perform a thorough analysis of the social networks and to use a holistic
approach in implementation of the project. They may have used awareness campaigns
which were not effective and this could be the reason why the social norm of FGM/C
continues and that the girls who were mainly targeted for this programmme run away
from home to avoid FGM/C.
The community members after realizing that girls who are sensitized on the effects of
FGM/C are running away from home to avoid FGM/C, are now cutting their girls at an
earlier age before they can understand what FGM/C is while others have resulted to
medicalization of the practice. This has worsened the situation as it is now harder to tell
what exactly happens.
In spite of sensitization to the dangers of FGM/C, the practice is still continuing. In the
media, we still get reports of girls who are still forcefully circumcised. For example, two
sisters who had run away to the rescue center to avoid FGM/C were reconciled with their
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parents and went back home but were later forcefully circumcised by neighbours
organized by their brother.
The mother of the 2 girls was sensitized on the dangers of FGM/C and had opted out only
for the community (with the help of the girls’ brother) to forcefully circumcise the two
sisters while their mother was away in a Christian crusade. This shows the extent of the
influence of individual family members and the community on the practice.
As a follow up to the session on incentives and social norms by Erte, when individuals
perceive an external intervention to be controlling, their intrinsic motivation to perform
the task diminishes. In this case study, community members/parents of the girls running
away to avoid FGM/C look at the safety net project as an external intervention that is
controlling them and some have decided to fight it and refuse to take back their girls even
with negotiations from a few elders and the Children Officer. They prefer to do away
with their “rebellious girls” and as a result, some of these girls have been in the rescue
center for over 6 years.
It seems this programme did not identify influential community members/local leaders in
the design stage who could have formed a critical mass to effect change. We also note
that although the safety net is essential for girls, it is not sustainable as it is not linked to
community structures for continuity/sustainability.
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The coordinator of the safety net programme has been accused of being at logger heads
with many local leaders who believe FGM/C makes women good wives in the same way
it turns boys into responsible men for the country and this has made them look at the
coordinator as an outsider..
The incentive given to girls in terms of going to school and having a home at the rescue
center is good but sustainability is a problem because the upkeep and education of girls at
secondary and university level is expensive and not many donors are willing to fund.
It has been found that circumcisers if not compensated well will go back to cutting. For
example, this project introduced 2 women circumcisers to the women group and being in
the group does not guarantee them getting the same income as that they got from FGM/C.
According to Erte’s presentation, it is either you pay enough or not pay at all. It also
shows that incentives can backfire especially when individuals perceive an external
intervention to be controlling hence their intrinsic motivation to perform a task
diminishes.
4.1) Modified strategy/suggested solutions
According to the session on social norms by Cristina, we have to understand why people
obey a social norm and under which conditions they will disobey it. In this programme,
an analysis of the social norm was not done to inform on why people practice FGM/C in
order to identify the best approach/strategy to help people disobey the norm. The design
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of the project was therefore wrong as it would have started with looking at people’s
values versus the practice.
There is need to pay attention to the social norm and let the community members discuss
issues/values of importance to them and through that address the issue of girls running
away from home. A good example is the KMG programme in Ethiopia where the
programme built capacity of core groups and engaged in organized diffusion and worked
with all sector. This led to organized abandonment of FGM/C.
This was also emphasized in Gerry Mackie’s session that it is important to start with an
influential group of people in the community and with time, this influential group will
reach out to the other members of the community who are empowered eventually. Gerry
further said abandonment will be accelerated if there is organized diffusion where value
of not cutting for an individual will depend on proportion of others choosing not to cut. In
this programme, a critical mass to influence other members of the community not to cut
their daughters was missing hence the choice by parents to reject their own children when
they disobey them and decide they do not want to be cut.
From the game theory presented by Gerry on coordinated strategy, individual
abandonment would make a family’s daughter worse off because it denies her marriageability and status. Collective abandonment makes each individual better off as the
daughter of the typical family preserves her marriage-ability and status but does not
undergo the health and human rights harms of FGM/C. Therefore abandonment is
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possible but typically only by coordinating a collective abandonment within intramarrying group.
This programme can replicate the non-directive strategy used by KMG programme of
Ethiopia and ask questions from community values such as, how can we have the girl
healthy, untouched and re-categorize the image of the uncut girl--- and explain why
cutting of girls is not good [or why not cutting girls is good, why uncut girls are good,
marriageable, etc.] instead of what is happening now where the girl is running away from
home yet this is where she belongs. It is also important to note that effective
abandonment requires community discussion, decision and commitment which can
eventually lead to a public declaration.
It is also necessary to increase awareness on FGM/C and human rights in order to make
progress towards the realization of those areas they consider immediate concern e.g.
education and health. The community discussion will then contribute to a new
understanding that girls would be better off if everyone abandoned the practice.
Since the rescue center is not sustainable, it is important for the programme to identify
the existing community networks/structures which could take care of the girls running
away from home and engage in community dialogue with council of elders, religious
leaders, young men and women and other local leaders on how to accelerate
abandonment of FGM/C.
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As a follow up to the session on incentives and social norms, the section on procedural
justice indicated that people are likely to comply to law if they view the law is just.
Punishment through jailing like it has happened to perpetrators of FGM/C may not result
to abandonment of FGM/C. It could reverse gains made as cultural conservatives can
make sure the practice continues. It is important for laws to be put in place and obeyed
but at the same time, prevention measures at the community level must take preference.
Kenya has a children Act that prohibits FGM/C but it has not been effective as the fine is
only about $600 and one year imprisonment, which is not enough to deter perpetrators of
FGM/C. An FGM/C Bill has been drafted and will be introduced to parliament by male
Parliamentarians. An FGM/C Policy has been developed and was approved by cabinet
recently. This is a step towards the right direction.
5) Conclusion
The safety net programme will need a review of the strategies used in order to have a
community –led programme. It will also be necessary to concentrate efforts in high
prevalence areas and have organized dialogues with communities that will accelerate
abandonment of FGM/C.
It will also be important to build the capacity of implementing partners to be able to use
the tools and modified strategy from this course specially those partners in the
GOK/UNFPA/UNICEF Joint Programme on accelerating abandonment of FGM/C. The
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strategy will also be recommended to other implementing partners working with different
communities using different strategies.
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