Interactive Maps on the Prevalence of Child, Early, and Forced Marriage and Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting

Child, Early, and Forced Marriage (CEFM) and Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) are forms of gender-based violence (GBV) and human rights violations experienced by millions of women and girls, in all their diversity, worldwide. These are harmful practices rooted in gender norms, but each practice has unique and context-specific drivers that can include wealth, education, and religion.

The goal of the Collective Action to Reduce GenderBased Violence (CARE-GBV) activity is to strengthen USAID’s collective prevention and response, or “collective action,” in GBV development programming across USAID. This second in a series of how-to notes produced under CARE-GBV orients users to the interactive maps on CEFM and FGM/C. 

USAID has developed interactive maps to describe the prevalence of CEFM and FGM/C in countries where these practices occur. Stakeholders can use these maps to inform programming by identifying where CEFM and FGM/C are occurring, including “hot spots” (areas of higher prevalence) at the subnational level, and, in some countries, changes in prevalence over time. The maps also show how education, wealth, and other secondary indicators interact with the prevalence of CEFM and FGM/C. nformation from these maps can be considered with other issue-based maps, such as on migration, nutrition, and drought levels, to identify other factors that may affect the prevalence of CEFM and FGM/C and to target sectoral programming on CEFM and FGM/C. These data can help identify geographic areas where more assessment is needed to target programming and invest in community-driven solutions.

Photo source: USAID Interactive Maps; Figure showing examples of the CEFM and FGM/C relationship diamond