Dr. Guyo Jaldesa - Senior Lecturer, University of Nairobi, and Coordinator of the Africa Coordinating Centre for the Abandonment of FGM - DFID Girl Summit 2014

Spotlight A7 - "The Role of Health, Education & Social Care Professionals in Creating 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. This particular spotlight shares stories about inspiring teachers and committed health workers, as well as evidence from around the world showing how health and education systems and services can connect with communities.

Profile of speaker: Dr. Jaldesa is a practicing obstetrician-gynaecologist, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Nairobi in Kenya and Coordinator of the Africa Coordinating Centre for the Abandonment of FGM (ACCAF). He has been studying FGM/C since 1995, focusing on population trends and on complications during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period among Somali populations in Kenya. According to DFID, his research has contributed to policy changes, including the passage of the FGM/C Prohibition Act by Kenya's Parliament.

Strategy overview: In his presentation "Addressing FGM among the Somali community in Kenya - Population Council, Government of Kenya, Kenya Council of Imams, Ulamaa and UNICEF", which can be viewed in the video below, Dr. Jaldesa presented lessons from experiences with training health workers in north-eastern Kenya to be agents of change towards the abandonment of FGM. An important element of this work has been to expose and strengthen understanding of the linkages between FGM and poor maternal health outcomes and to challenge perceptions that FGM/C is a religious requirement of Islam.

Dr. Jaldesa talked about lessons learned while working with the Somali community in Kenya, which has a 99% prevalence of FGM. He explained that their approach was centred on education and training. Time was taken to educate people that FGM is not a religious requirement, which is a widely held belief. There was also a need to educate health professionals about the dangers of FGM to discourage them from carrying it out. Many health professionals believe that if they carry out the procedure it is safer. Dr. Jaldesa explained it was no good "moving down the scale of FGM"; instead, it needs to be stopped outright. He described how they released an official training manual for health professionals to explain how to prevent FGM and support survivors. He called for more outreach work and better data on why prevalence rates of FGM increase or decrease.

A visit to the website of the ACCAF website reveals that this organisation pursues the following objectives and strategies:

1. Advocate, educate, and create a supportive environment for cultural change - Strategies include: conducting leadership training within the community and research to strengthen work to influence national policies and guidelines to integrate a focus on FGM/C where possible; supporting grassroot-level and community-based initiatives to stimulate awareness and address FGM/C as a public health issue; supporting interventions and initiatives that work towards engaging FGM/C practicing communities in behavioural change; and conducting capacity-building workshops on design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of interventions towards the elimination of FGM/C within communities.
2. Support networking and knowledge exchange on the abandonment of FGM/C - Strategies include: identifying researchers, health providers, community workers and others with in-depth knowledge and experience of FGM/C-related issues and inviting them to take part in a FGM/C network of exchange and capacity building; and supporting networking activities between researchers and health professionals working on FGM/C-related issues.
3. Identify knowledge gaps (e.g., socio-cultural dynamics of the continuation or abandonment of FGM/C) and support and stimulate research in the area of FGM/C - Strategies include: building a library and overview of literature on FGM/C, including grey literature, PhD studies, and other unpublished studies; providing technical support to researchers and activists through the network of specialists; organising training workshops for researchers and evaluators; disseminating information on new studies and knowledge gaps; arranging scientific conferences; and supporting researchers to increase and improve publication of research and interventions.
4. Improve health care for women and children who have undergone FGM/C - Strategies include: organising training workshops for various categories of health care providers; establishing a tertiary referral and training Centre for health care providers at Kenyatta Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya, linked to the Centre; and supporting programmes for training of health care providers in care and counselling.

Overview of this Summit session: "Change is underway. Health, education and social care systems and those within them can make it go faster and further. This spotlight will share exciting stories and evidence from around the world: stories of inspiring teachers and committed health workers - and evidence for how health and education systems and services can connect with communities." Following an introduction by Edward Timpson MP Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children & Families in the Department for Education, England, the Chair of this session, Jane Ellison, MP Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health at the Department of Health, moderated the panel of speakers. In order of appearance, they are:

• Dr. Guyo Jaldesa, Senior Lecturer, University of Nairobi, and Coordinator of the Africa Coordinating Centre for the Abandonment of FGM
• Astrid Fairclough, Female Genital Mutilation Prevention - Programme Manager, Department of Health, Government of the United Kingdom
• Saria Khalifa, Youth Programme Lead, FORWARD
• Dr. Ravi Verma Regional Director, ICRW Asia Regional Office
• Sonia Aziz Malik Senior Lecturer, Regional Institute of Gender, Diversity, Peace and Rights, Ahfad University for Women

Footage of this (available below) presentation and others 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.