Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much funding her Department has allocated to initiatives aimed at preventing female genital mutilation overseas in each year since 2009-10; and which countries were supported through such initiatives in each such year.

DFID’s flagship programme to prevent Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), ‘Towards ending FGM/C in Africa and Beyond’, is providing up to £35 million in funding to end FGM in 17 high prevalence countries. The programme includes three core components: work with the UN on challenging social norms and working with governments on policy measures, supporting Africa-led campaigns and a research programme to build the evidence base for tackling FGM.

The countries covered by this programme are: Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mauritania, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Uganda.

Where applicable some DFID country offices also have their own bilateral programmes. In Sudan for example DFID’s regional programme is complemented by a country specific programme to support the scale up of initiatives to end FGM across the country.