Empowering health care providers to prevent female genital mutilation
The health sector has an important role to play, not only in ensuring the highest quality health care for girls and women living with female genital mutilation (FGM), but also in preventing FGM from being performed.
FGM is a socio-behavioral norm that, despite increasing the risk of negative effects on the health and well-being of girls and women, is often difficult for health care providers to discuss. However, health care providers, particularly nurses and midwives,
are in a unique position to influence and change the attitudes of their patients regarding FGM, which is a key step towards preventing new cases of the practice in their communities.
To support nurses and midwives to use this unique position, WHO has developed a training package to strengthen the person-centred communication skills needed by health care providers to communicate effectively, empathetically and in a sensitive manner
when discussing FGM with women during antenatal care and other clinical encounters. The training package consists of a training manual, training aids and an animated video.
The training has a strong emphasis on exploring the underlying values and social norms that drive the continuation of the practice of FGM. It is delivered using an interactive methodology with group discussions and role playing exercises. A rigorous evaluation was conducted in 3 countries to test the hypothesis that this training package can empower health care providers to communicate confidently and effectively with their patients and their families, as a means to challenge harmful norms and promote the abandonment of FGM. The results of this evaluation were positive and the package was launched in 2022.
