The DHS Working Papers series is an unreviewed and unedited prepublication series of papers reporting on research in progress based on Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data.
Funding for this research was provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) (# OD/AP- 07-03055). Additional support was provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the MEASURE DHS project (# GPO-C-00-03-00002-00).
Views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of WHO, USAID, the United States Government, or the organizations with which the authors are
affiliated.

Pour évaluer l'ampleur des MGF/E au Burkina Faso, en 2003  l'EDSBF-III a collecté des informations sur la prévalence de l'excision parmi les femmes enquêtées, sur le type d'excision pratiquée, ainsi que sur l'âge des femmes au moment de l'excision et le type de personne qui a procédé à l'excision. On a également demandé aux femmes si, parmi leurs filles, certaines avaient subi cette pratique pour déterminer dans quelle mesure cette pratique se perpétue d'une génération de femmes à l'autre. Dans le cas d'une réponse affirmative, des informations ont été collectées concernant la fille qui a été le plus récemment excisée. En outre, pour connaître l'opinion des femmes au sujet de l'excision, on leur a également posé des questions sur leur opinion concernant la poursuite ou l'arrêt de cette pratique, sur les objections faites lors de l'excision de la fille, sur les complications au moment ou après l'excision des filles et sur les avantages pour une fille d'être excisée ou non. Dans le questionnaire homme, on a également posé une série de questions sur la connaissance et l'opinion des hommes au sujet de l'excision.

.In Cameroun, a national plan of action to combat female genital mutilation/cutting was adopted in 1998. It includes actions concerning education, infromation, sensitization on the negatif effects of the practice, as well as advocacy actions towards relevant stakeholders and practicing ethnic groups. The DHS III included a section on FGM/C in order to understand the prevalence rate and the attitudes and opinions of the population concerning the practice. As a result, it appears that knowledge about the practice is relative law (only about 33 per cent of women affirm to know the practice), probably due to the fact that FGM/C concern only a marginal proportion of women in Cameroun: according to the results of the survey, only 1,4 % of women in Cameroun was cut. The results are published in french.

As in the previous DHS conducted in Guinea in 1999, also the last DHS III included a questionnaire on FGM/C, in order to estimate the prevalence rate among women, the types of FGM/C practices in the country, the age at the moment FGM/C were practiced, who performed the practice as well as opinions and attitudes of the population towards FGM/C and its abandondment. The results of the DHS are presented in the attached chapter, in French.

In Mali, the political will to address FGM/C is expressed in the inclusion of  the consequences of  FGM/C among the health aspects that national services on sexual and reporductive (maternal) health should address. Moreover,  the Government created a National Committee on actions promoting the abandonment of FGM/C was created. Many non governmental organisations also addressed the practice of the last twenty years, with actions targeted towards parliamentarians, the practicing communities, and other relevant stakeholders, such as young people and teachers. Information on FGM/C was also included in the new school curricula. Nevertheless, according to the last DHS III, conducted in Mali in 2003, the prevalence rate remains very high (above 90 %) for all age groups and with almost no difference among the rural and the urban area. The results of the DHS III, in French, are presented in the attached repor