Zsanett Shashaty, Anti-Slavery Officer for the Welsh Government - DFID Girl Summit 2014

"Clear policy and strong government leadership, combined with wide collaboration with statutory partners, NGOs [non-governmental organisations], community and faith leaders is challenging attitudes and resulting in innovative actions in Wales." - Zsanett Shashaty

Spotlight B2 - "Bringing it all Together: Ending FGM Through Strong and Effective National Action"

Context: This presentation is from one of the 14 "Spotlights on Progress" video-recorded sessions from the Girl Summit 2014, London, United Kingdom (UK). The sessions were organised to share best practice between practitioners, grassroots activists, and government ministers across the issues of female genital mutilation (FGM) (also FGM/C - female genital mutilation/cutting) and child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM). The Girl Summit is a project of the Department for International Development (DFID), UK.

Profile of speaker: Zsanett Shashaty is Anti-Slavery Officer for the Welsh Government. According to her LinkedIn profile, she has "[a] passion for multi agency partnership working and managing multi talented teams across multi geographical sites and stakeholder engagement." As part of her role, held since November 2013, Ms. Shashaty has working across devolved statutory and devolved non-statutory agencies and voluntary agencies in developing and supporting delivery of the Welsh Government's Female Genital Mutilation, Honour-based Violence, Forced Marriage and Slavery policy (To read about the meaning of devolution in the UK, click here for one explanation.) She provides subject matter and policy support within the Violence Against Women and Domestic Abuse team, using her practical and technical knowledge of front-line delivery in areas such as protection of adults and children at risk and slavery and violence against women and children. She also works alongside the Wales Anti-Slavery Co-ordinator to develop an environment in Wales that is hostile to slavery - coordinating support for survivors and response across agencies to prevent this crime.

Strategy overview: Ms. Shashaty explained that Wales has been making significant progress in the last two years. This has been accomplished through raising awareness of the practice, providing support to survivors and communities, and developing the knowledge of professionals through training. Ms. Shashaty said that as part of the Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act, which was passed in 2015 (following this conference), there is a focus on training for police, the voluntary sector, the health and education sector, and so on to create a national training resource. The bill, which includes reference to FGM, aims to develop collaborative work to consolidate a variety of training resources into a single plan. The framework is being mapped out depending on audience needs.

The Welsh government has worked to raise awareness about FGM and girls' and women's rights through publicity, social media, and campaigns. There is also a schools programme, which was planned at the time of the presentation to be launched in September 2015. It is designed to teach youth about healthy relationships.

In the question and answer session, Ms. Shashaty said that she wanted to work with and involve men in efforts to combat FGM.

Overview of this Summit session: Speakers from African and European countries came together in this session to discuss what they have done to ensure coordinated and comprehensive national action towards ending FGM in their own countries and seek insight from each other's experiences. They talk about how they have creatively brought together diverse groups to achieve consensus on what needs to happen to end FGM, highlighting critical steps towards success as well as challenges. Following an opening by Cathy Russell, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues, United States, the speakers, in order of appearance, are:

• Hon. Dr Linah Jebii Kilimo, Chair of the Anti-FGM Board, Kenya
• Dr. Alain P. Zoubga, Minister for Social Action and National Solidarity, Government of Burkina Faso
• Norman Baker, MP Minister of State for Crime Prevention, Government of the United Kingdom
• Zsanett Shashaty, Anti-Slavery Officer for the Welsh Government
• Vitor Almeida, Senior Advisor in the Portuguese Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality, Government of Portugal
• Dr. Morissanda Kouyate, Executive Director, Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices

The session was moderated by Susan Bookbinder, who is a journalist, broadcaster, columnist and media consultant with a particular focus on FGM.

Footage of this (available below) presentation and others are available on DFID’s YouTube channel.

The Girl Summit is a project of DFID. Click here and scroll down to see the full list of individuals and organisations committed to working on girls' issues, as well as a list of Girl Summit Charter signatories.