Under the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Egypt is adopting the Generation Dialogue approach to initiate social change within communities with a focus on harmful practices. 

The Generation Dialogue is a method that aims to create social change where traditions and practices have harmful effects on the health and wellbeing of communities. It explores the reasons why harmful practices persist, and addresses these reasons and encourages communities to reassess them.

This comes in partnership with the Sector Programme ‘Promoting Gender Equality and Women’s Rights,’ which is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and with funding from the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Cairo, under the “Accelerating change through a gender transformative approach to eliminating FGM in Egypt.”

UNFPA Egypt supported the localisation and adaptation of the Generation Dialogue approach to the Egyptian context in collaboration of Care, Etijah, and Y-Peer youth network and pilot it in the Upper Egypt governorates of Assiut, Sohag, Minya, Beni Suef, and Qena.

This started with the selection and training of local coordinators and facilitators in these governorates to act as change-makers in their own communities and engage community leaders. 

The local coordinators and facilitators will then be responsible for organizing community consultations to understand the development challenges of their communities before initiating the generation dialogues, while maintaining active listening, dialogue, respect and appreciation for their local cultures. 

The Generation Dialogues is a tool used for changing norms around harmful practices and female genital mutilation (FGM) for acclerating the abondenment of FGM building on an approach that allows local communities to express the underlying dilemmas and values that lead them to resist change, acknowledging these dilemmas and empowering participants of both genders to act as catalysts of change in their own communities.