May 31, 2010
By Alison Clarke - Women's Views on News
Although rates of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) have slowed down in the Cote d'Ivoire thanks to a campaign of zero tolerance, campaigners are concerned that they are not falling faster.
The Ministry for Family, Women and Social Affairs is at the forefront of the campaign, which is backed by the UN Development Fund for Women, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and UN Population Fund, according to Ministry head Euphrasie Yao.
"FGM is decreasing, but one in three women in this country is still mutilated, and that is too high," Leticia Bazzi, child protection officer for UNICEF in Côte d'Ivoire, told IRIN.
In 1998 some 49 percent of women and girls aged 10 to 45 were subjected to FGM/C, but by 2006 the number had dropped to around 36 percent.
