Women-led organizations, especially at the local and grass-roots level, have in-depth understanding of the challenges that women and girls face and vital resources on how to advance their rights. They are critical to shifting policies, legislation and institutional structures that perpetuate FGM. In 2023, the Joint Programme supported the integration of 8,817 grassroots and community-based organizations within coalitions and networks working for the elimination of FGM. It engaged more than 111,781 front-line workers at the community level from 241 implementing partners across 17 target countries. 

The Joint Programme, alongside its partners, remains committed to continuing to enhance strategic partnership with and the engagement of women-led organizations and feminist movements to leverage their influence, capabilities and contributions to the achievement of short-, medium- and long-term outcomes, towards ending FGM by 2030. The Joint Programme builds on the vision that local solutions can accelerate the elimination of FGM at the subnational and national levels. The 2023 Annual Report for the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation includes snapshots of 17 focus countries.