Will attempts to put an end to the practice of female genital mutilation be futile — no matter how many aid dollars are spent, or how many campaigns launched? Interventions, suggest FGM experts we spoke with, are “set up to fail” when carried out in silos instead of combining multiple, mutually reinforcing strategies.
And is the same true of the distribution of aid dollars aimed at addressing the issue?
Despite strong rhetoric and undeniable good intentions, donors that focus solely on big organizations and big campaigns run the risk of making a smaller impact if they miss out on making their support available at the grass-roots level, warn the experts.