By Fiona Peart | Head of Development
Report of Orchid Project’s work
January – June 2025
Since January this year, we have been working hard on all our areas of focus to accelerate the end of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). Your generous support has been instrumental in driving our initiatives forward, enabling us to achieve remarkable milestones and positively impact the communities we serve, while uniting the actors and movement to end FGM/C together. This report encapsulates our key accomplishments, ongoing projects, and the collective efforts of our dedicated team and partners. We are excited to share this progress we have made and the promising developments on the horizon, all made possible through your unwavering commitment to our mission. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you. We hope you will enjoy reading the updates of our work below.
ADVOCACY
Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) Conference
Between March 10 and 21, the Orchid Project led and co-hosted 5 events at the 69th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, advancing our strategic advocacy objectives and fostering global collaboration.
Policy Brief: The Hidden Toll – A Girl Dies Every 12 Minutes from FGM/C
We continued our collaboration with the University of Birmingham to amplify awareness around the key finding that FGM/C contributes to over 44,000 deaths annually, equivalent to one girl dying every 12 minutes. Building on this data, we developed a policy brief with the University that aims to reframe FGM/C as a public health emergency and a major contributor to child mortality. Through the brief, we communicate that the established link between FGM/C and mortality is a critical—yet overlooked—piece in elevating FGM/C alongside other global health priorities. Recognizing and addressing FGM/C as a public health emergency can catalyse the much-needed policy action and funding. The outreach was launched in early May. Natalie Roberts, our Communications Lead, worked closely with grassroots partners to document real-life stories as case studies and worked with designers to produce compelling visual assets to include in the policy brief.
Zero Tolerance Day Campaign – “1 Girl Dies Every 12 Minutes”
On February 6th, International Day of Zero Tolerance, we launched a campaign together with the University of Birmingham, calling for the international community to act through increased investment and stronger commitment to eliminating the practice. The central piece of this campaign was an illustrative video, narrated by Hoda Ali, an FGM/C survivor and activist, lasting one minute, to reflect how, in just 11 minutes, another girl would die from FGM/C.
The Story of a Woman Podcast
On May 21, we launched a three-part mini-series podcast with the Story of a Woman. The series includes interviews from communities in urban Nairobi and various rural Maasai villages discussing why FGM/C happens, any progress with ending the practice, and what can be done. The podcast also includes interviews with Sean Callaghan and Kirigo to discuss FGM/C from a research and advocacy perspective. It allowed us to reach a new public-facing audience and to be visible on platforms we aren’t present on, such as TikTok, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. The podcast was nominated for the International Women's Podcast Awards in the "Changing the World One Moment at a Time" category.
RESEARCH
Horn of Africa Reports
The Horn of Africa dialogue series has resulted in the publication of three resources:
These were launched in a webinar in April and are now available online on the newly developed Horn of Africa Regional Section of fgmcri.org
Research in Indonesia and Malaysia
We have completed the fieldwork and delivered the final report to the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). The project has been all-consuming for the Asia-facing research team members, resulting in delays to the completion of the Indonesia Country Profile.
UNFPA Southeast Asia Opportunity
Together with our Malay partner, ARROW, we have been shortlisted as a partner for the UNFPA work across Southeast Asia. Once appointed, our role in the first phase of this project (through Dec 2025) will be to conduct research on the harms of FGM/C as it is practiced in Asia (Type 1 & 4) and adapt the WHO-funded evidence generation capacity strengthening material to the Asian context. This will then lead to a second phase contract commencing in early 2026.
FGM/C in the Middle East
Hogan Lovells (Middle East) LLP has completed the primary research for the first five (of 10) Middle East law reports. The rest are anticipated in the next quarter. It is anticipated that we will then produce law reports and short reports covering ten Middle Eastern countries over this financial year.
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