A high-level mission from the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) conducted a visit to Egypt on February 16-20, 2025, to follow up on the progress of ongoing initiatives and activities aimed at combating the harmful practice and to ensure global technical assistance to national efforts. 

During its week-long mission to Egypt, the delegation from UNFPA and UNICEF’s headquarters engaged extensively with national partners, community leaders, healthcare professionals, development partners, and women and girls from local communities in Aswan, Cairo and Minya. This enabled the Joint Programme at the global level to gain a deeper understanding of the complexities around harmful practices in Egypt, the scale of results and progress achieved under this portfolio, and also to explore new opportunities for more effective programming. 

The delegation from UNFPA and UNICEF that comprised team members from the global, regional and country offices, engaged in high level consultation meetings with Counsellor Amal Amar, President of the National Council for Women, Dr Wael Abd El Razek, Secretary General of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, Dr. Osama Abd Elhay, Head of Medical Syndicate, Dr. Abla El-Alfy, Deputy Minister of Health and Population for Family Development, and Judge Hussam Sadek, Assistant Minister of Justice.

The mission addressed during its visit several critical issues, that intersect with the FGM eradication efforts achieved by UNFPA-UNICEF such as the data collection and national data on prevalence of FGM in Egypt, the ongoing need to address negative social norms among communities as well as service providers, the role of religious leaders, the need to address FGM prevalance among refugee communities and the progress achieved by UNFPA to address FGM medicalization in Egypt.  

Field visits to Aswan and Minya provided firsthand insights into local challenges and interventions, including the Women and Girls Safe Space, Safe Women's Clinics and community engagement programs supported by UNFPA’s civil society partners.