World
New $15.5m Fund Launched to Boost Global Fight Against FGM Amid Funding Cuts
A newly launched $15.5m (£11.4m) fund aims to build “unstoppable momentum” toward ending female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice that has affected more than 230 million women and girls worldwide. Activists and leaders working to eliminate FGM have welcomed the initiative, describing it as the largest single philanthropic contribution ever made toward ending the practice.
The fund's creation comes at a time when women's rights are increasingly threatened and donor funding for anti-FGM efforts, particularly work led by survivors within their own communities, is sharply declining. The United Nations has set a target of eliminating FGM by 2030, but experts say progress is falling behind due to reduced funding and weakening legal protections.
The largest existing initiative to combat FGM, a joint programme run in 18 countries by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and Unicef, saw its funding drop by 45% last year, falling from $29.6m to $16.3m.
The newly established Her Horizon Fund was seeded with $14m from the US-based Wallace Global Fund, along with an additional $1.5m from an anonymous donor, bringing the total to $15.5m. The fund's broader goal is to raise $100m from various donors to reach what organisers call a “tipping point” in ending FGM within a generation.
Ifrah Ahmed, a Somali-Irish activist and FGM survivor who founded the Ifrah Foundation to combat the practice in Somalia—where it is nearly universal—welcomed the funding. “By giving $14m, the global fund will ensure activists can continue their work in this area,” she said. Ahmed's organisation lost $300,000 in UNFPA funding last year but managed to secure resources from other sources. The Ifrah Foundation has been instrumental in pushing for anti-FGM legislation in Somalia, where three of the country's seven federal member states have passed laws banning the practice. In two other states, bills banning FGM have received cabinet approval and await parliamentary passage, though they face opposition from some religious leaders.
“If we don't continue to raise money, the dream where this practice will end will have died for young girls,” Ahmed said.
While international recognition of FGM as a human rights violation has increased, with countries including Burkina Faso, the Gambia and Kenya criminalising the practice, advocates caution that progress remains fragile. In the Gambia, the supreme court is currently reviewing a constitutional challenge to the country's 2015 ban on FGM, following a failed 2024 parliamentary attempt to repeal the law that was rejected after months of debate amid strong opposition from women's rights groups. In Sierra Leone, the recently passed Child Rights Act does not prohibit FGM, despite ongoing campaigns by rights organisations.
Susan Gibbs, senior adviser on women's rights and FGM at the Wallace Global Fund, described FGM as “a global crisis, an extreme manifestation of gender-based violence and violence against children, and a public health emergency.” She noted that while UN data shows declining prevalence in several countries after decades of progress, this has been offset by political instability and pushback against rights protections, alongside declining donor support.
“We're at this critical inflection point,” Gibbs said. “Most frontline organisations have been absolutely starved for resources, and so more direct funding would allow them to sustain and scale up their work.”
Gibbs attended the Justice for Girls global gathering in Kenya earlier this month, where the fund was officially launched, and described the energy at the event as “incredible.” She emphasised that lasting change must be driven by frontline activists and survivors rather than imposed externally. “They know their communities and they know what it will take. They must have the resources and power to lead,” she said, adding that she believes the fund's impact will be “catalytic” given adequate resources.
FGM involves the partial or total removal of female genitalia for non-medical purposes. Globally, it has affected more than 144 million women and girls in Africa, 80 million in Asia, and 6 million in the Middle East. The practice can lead to immediate health complications including severe pain, excessive bleeding, and infection, as well as long-term issues such as childbirth complications, chronic pain, and psychological trauma. A 2025 study estimated that FGM causes approximately 44,000 deaths annually across 15 countries examined, making it one of the leading causes of death among women and girls in those nations.