UN agencies call for end to female genital mutilation, as over four million girls remain at risk in 2026 

The World Health Oranisation (WHO) has joined with other United Nations agencies to call for the cessation of female genital mutilation (FGM) across the globe, warning that as of 2026, an estimated 4.5 million girls are at risk of undergoing such “harmful practice.” 

In commemoration of International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation on February 6, the WHO, UN Populations Fund, UN Women, UN Children’s Fund, UN Human Rights Office and UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, issued a joint statement to re-affirm their commitment to ending FGM “for every girl and every woman at risk,” and to urge “sustained commitment and investment” for this purpose. 

In this year alone, “an estimated 4.5 million girls – many under the age of five – are at risk of undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM),” reads the joint statement published February 5. 

Currently, more than 230 million girls and women are living with its lifelong consequences, affecting their physical and mental health, with treatment costing about $1.4 billion every year, it further noted. 

“Female genital mutilation is a violation of human rights and cannot be justified on any grounds,” the UN agencies pointed out. 

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Every dollar counts

In line with the objective to eradicate FGM “once and for all” by 2030, as part of the Sustainable Development Goal target, the signatories are seeking an investment worth at least $2.8 billion, and the continuation of “effective strategies to end the practice,” such as health education and engagement with religious and community leaders, as well as parents. 

“Interventions aimed at ending female genital mutilation over the last three decades are having an impact, with nearly two-thirds of the population in countries where it is prevalent expressing support for its elimination” reads the joint statement. 

Further insisting on the “slow progress” against FGM, the agencies said “half of all gains since 1990 were achieved in the past decade, reducing the number of girls subjected to FGM from one in two to one in three.”

However, recent “funding cuts and declining international investment in health, education and child protection programmes” have started “constraining efforts to prevent female genital mutilation and support survivors,” according to the UN agencies. 

They said every dollar invested in ending FGM yields a tenfold return.

“An investment of $2.8 billion can prevent 20 million cases and generate $28 billion in investment returns.” 

“Without adequate and predictable financing, community outreach programmes risk being scaled back, frontline services weakened and progress reversed – placing millions more girls at risk at a critical moment in the push to meet the 2030 target,” they stressed.

FGM across the globe

The UN defines FGM as “all procedures involving partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons,” a practice condemned by a number of international treaties and conventions, as well as by national legislation in many countries.

The latest data from UNICEF show that around the world, Africa accounts for the largest number of girls and women who have been cut, with over 144 million cases out of the total 230 million.

Asia comes next with over 80 million, followed by the Middle East with a further six million. 

Another one to two million FGM cases are recorded in small practicing communities and destination countries for migration in the rest of the world.

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