ABSTRACT
This chapter examines continuing challenges to FGM eradication, such as economic constraints and deficient implementation of public health studies’ findings/recommendations in a wider context. FGM has a significant negative influence on the economic well-being of FGM-practicing communities. Public health–related rigorous studies of FGM have increased significantly, but attempts to bring these studies together to arrive at some sort of consensus are infrequent. Most are location-specific, and their inquiries tend to reflect the concerns of investigator/s rather than wider contextual issues. As the World Health Organization FGM Economic Costs Calculator makes clear, the costs alone of medical and health care for women and children affected by FGM are massive and all too often not met. These are, however, only a part of the total funds and resources wasted or misdirected by this and similar harms, and unlike the hypothetical costs of full medical care of women with FGM, these other expenditures arise whether or not they are understood or acknowledged. In the central belt of Africa, most land is tended to by women, who are the most likely to have experienced excision. These women’s poor health impacts the nutrition and health of entire communities.
