Female Genital Mutilation (FGM): Who is at risk?

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM): Who is at risk?

 FGM is mostly carried out on young girls sometime between infancy and adolescence, and occasionally on adult women.

 More than 3 million girls are estimated to be at risk for FGM annually.

 More than 200 million girls and women alive today have been subjected to the practice, according to data from 30 countries where population data exist.

 The practice is mainly concentrated in the Western, Eastern, and North-Eastern regions of Africa.

 The reasons why female genital mutilations are performed vary from one region to another.

Some financial burden of FGM:

WHO has conducted a study of the economic costs of treating health complications of FGM:

It has found that the current costs for 27 countries where data were available totaled 1.4 billion USD during a one-year period (2018)
This amount is expected to rise to 2.3 billion in 30 years (2047) if FGM prevalence remains the same – corresponding to a 68% increase in the costs of inaction
However, if countries abandon FGM, these costs would decrease by 60% over the next 30 years

Credit: WHO

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