By Mannat K, Sahiyo Volunteer
When we think about the impacts of climate change, we often focus on rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and threats to food security. What receives far less attention is how environmental crises disproportionately harm women and girls, particularly those in vulnerable communities, by intensifying gender-based violence such as female genital mutilation (FGM/C), according to United Nations Development Programme. As an article in the Journal of Travel Medicine explains, climate change is now the leading drive of internal displacement worldwide. In 2023 alone, more than 75 million people were internally displaced, often through slow-onset crises like drought rather than sudden conflict. These forms of displacement frequently occur without the humanitarian protections triggered by war, leaving families to cope with prolonged instability on their own. Women and girls make up approximately 80% of those displaced by climate-related disasters, placing them at heightened risk of gender-based violence, early marriage, and FGM/C.
Sylvia Thomson explains in her article, Kenya: How Climate Change Is Driving FGM and Early Marriages, in communities where FGM/C is already practiced, climate change exacerbates the conditions that sustain the harmful practice. Prolonged droughts, floods, and extreme weather events devastate livelihoods, particularly in pastoralist and agricultural societies. Among the Maasai in Kenya, for example, drought has led to widespread livestock loss, undermining the primary source of wealth, food security, and social status. As families lose cattle and crops, economic desperation sets in. In these circumstances, marrying off daughters can become a survival strategy. Dowries provide short-term financial relief, and FGM/C is often viewed as a prerequisite for marriage.
In 2022 during a severe drought in Kenya, reports compiled in the article “Impact of Displacement Due to Climate Change on Female Genital Mutilations”, showed increases in FGM, child marriage, and other forms of gender-based violence. Similar patterns emerged in Ethiopia’s drought-affected regions, where child marriage rates more than doubled between June 2021 and June 2022, with girls as young as 12 undergoing FGM/C in preparation for the early marriages. These trends are not isolated. Across the Horn of Africa, (Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti), climate-induced poverty and displacement have repeatedly been linked to rising rates of early marriage and FGM/C, particularly in rural and pastoralist communities where climate shocks directly threaten the communities survival.
Climate change also disrupts girls’ education, further narrowing their future options. As water sources dry up and food becomes scarce, girls are often pulled out of school to travel long distances in search of water or to take on additional household labor. Without education, their economic prospects shrink, making early marriage appear to be the only viable path forward. Displacement compounds these risks. In camps and informal settlements, families face overcrowding, limited access to services, and heightened fears of sexual violence. In these settings, some parents view early marriage and FGM/C as protective measures intended to safeguard daughters’ honor or reduce perceived sexual risk, even though the FGM/C itself inflicts lasting physical and psychological negative impacts.
The relationship between displacement and FGM/C is complex. In some cases, displaced communities maintain or even intensify FGM/C as a way to preserve cultural identity in unfamiliar environments. Sudanese mothers living in displacement, for instance, often face pressure from grandmothers and female relatives to continue the harmful practice, particularly when male family members, who may oppose FGM/C, are absent. Paradoxically, displacement can also introduce FGM/C into communities that did not previously allow it. Research shows) that some internally displaced populations in Mali and Nigeria adopted FGM/C only after resettlement, driven by social pressure and economic necessity. Syrian families in Egypt have similarly taken up FGM/C to assimilate into host communities or in response to misconceptions about social and religious expectations. Displacement can cause harmful practices, like FGM/C, to be enshrined as symbols of identity or introduce such harmful practices as tools of survival and social belonging.
Traditional anti-FGM/C initiatives have largely focused on changing social norms, and while these efforts are essential, they are often insufficient in the face of environmental and economic crises. Research from Kenya’s Maasai communities highlights that focusing on norms alone overlooks the broader socio-ecological pressures shaping family decision-making. The “flower model” of behavior change offers a more comprehensive framework, as considered in Intersections between climate change and female genital mutilation among the Maasai of Kajiado County, Kenya. It emphasizes the interaction between four domains: institutional structures, material conditions, social norms, and individual circumstances. Climate change directly undermines each of these domains by destroying livelihoods, eroding education systems, weakening social safety nets, and intensifying poverty. When families are struggling to survive, abandoning FGM/C can feel like an unaffordable risk rather than a moral choice (Atenya, K. (2023, March 21). Climate change and female genital mutilation/cutting: A hidden connection impacting vulnerable communities in Kenya).
The growing link between climate change and FGM/C underscores the urgent need for integrated responses. Anti-FGM/C efforts must be embedded within broader humanitarian and climate adaptation frameworks that address poverty, displacement, education, and economic resilience. Evidence from drought-affected regions shows that when climate adaptation measures, such as improved water access, livelihood support, and school retention programs, are paired with gender-responsive interventions, rates of early marriage and FGM/C decline. As climate change accelerates, millions more girls risk exposure to FGM/C and early marriage. Protecting them requires recognizing that environmental justice and gender equality are inseparable. Climate policies and adaptation strategies that ignore gendered harms risk unintentionally reinforcing the very harmful practices they seek to eliminate. Only by addressing the structural vulnerabilities created by climate change can we hope to end FGM/C and build a more equitable future for girls and women worldwide.
Read more about the connection between Climate Change and FGM/C below:
The urgency of climate change: Reflecting on my conversation with activist Domtila Chesang
