IPPF arranged the first meeting of the project group that is tasked to develop IPPF policy and advocacy work on SOGIE issues in Nairobi in November 2019. IPPF has chosen 12 member associations (MAs), two from each IPPF region, for this important work.  Participants shared their countries’ political situation and discussed possibilities and strategies for changing restrictive laws and regulations.  The participants feedback expressed that they were inspired by the range of advocacy experiences and ideas, the creative solutions to reformulate challenges to opportunities and the wins already achieved.  The world has recently seen improvements in SOGIE rights but still around 70 out of 190 countries have criminalizing legislations. Processes of decriminalization using the judicial system was a main discussion. Participants from MAs in India, Botswana and Trinidad and Tobago described how this had been a successful strategy in their countries and what the role of a non LGBTI health and human rights organisation could be. Examples were shared on how to cooperate with LGBTI organisations, including hosting and help initiate them in their formative stages. Some of our member organisations described the success of building and strengthening partner networks over time to enable the building of skills and confidence.  The participants also spent time discussing how to ensure institutional strengthening of their organisations ensuring the SOGIE knowledge and competence when carrying out advocacy. Making use of interns and ensuring this competence in the governing boards were among examples given. International human rights mechanisms like the Universal Periodic Review are advocacy opportunities where the organisations are participating through writing shadow reports and reporting the situation on the ground. In addition, there were presentations of how to address public opinion (this film from Romania can be used as an example) and raise awareness of changes that are needed, as well as how to build movements and the importance for collecting evidence and data.  All these efforts require funding, thus the participants made advocacy plans that can be used when applying for support. The advocacy plans were made according to the IPPF strategies and the participants discussed how to make use of the IPPF tools.  At the end the participants watched the upcoming documentary The Art of Sin about the first gay man from Sudan to come out, by Ibrahim Mursal (co-produced by Sex og Politikk, IPPF’s MA in Norway). The film follows the artist Ahmed Umar as he comes out and explores his identity both in Sudan (where death penalty can be imposed on men who have sex with men) and Norway.    List of participants:   The participants came from 12 IPPF member associations (MAs), two from each of the 6 IPPF regions in the world: Tunisia (ATSR), Morocco (AMPF), Botswana (BFWA), Kenya (FHOK), India (FPAI), Sri Lanka (FPASL), Nord-Macedonia (HERA), Romania (SECS), Cambodia (RHAC), Indonesia (PKBI), Guyana (GRPA) and Trinidad and Tobago (FPATT) as well as the steering group and the secretariat. The IPPF Steering Committee has one representative from each of IPPF 6 regions: Africa, Arab World, Europe, South East Asia and Oceania, South Asia and Western Hemisphere.  The secretariat of the project is based at IPPF Norway (Sex og Politikk).  

The UNFPA's State of the World Population report highlights that, while much progress has been made globally in upholding reproductive rights, there remains large inequalities in access and high levels of unmet needs.  By grouping countries into low, medium and high fertility countries, the report recognizes the diverse needs globally, and the importance of targeted interventions. In high fertility countries, the high unmet need for family planning is one of the most important issues that governments and SRHR partners need to address by ensuring access to quality, rights-based contraceptive services. In low fertility countries, the report highlights infertility and needs of the ageing population - more needs to be done to prioritize these issues, especially in countries with low fertility. In countries with mid fertility, high adolescent fertility is a concern, and reflects the need to further strengthen youth friendly services, including comprehensive sexuality education.   IPPF supports the report and especially its emphasis and recognition of the reproductive rights of couples, including the right to choose, the right to decide the number of children they wish to have and when, throughout the report.  IPPF joins its voice with UNFPA and partners to call on governments to sustain their commitments to SRHR and ensure access to the full range of high quality universally accessible SRH services and allocate domestic funding to ensure that gender equality and sexual and reproductive rights are realized. This is of critical importance as the 25th anniversary of the historic commitments adopted by 179 governments in the Programme of Action of the International Conference of Population and Development in Cairo in 1994. IPPF aligns with the call made by the report on the rights of all women to choose and decide freely and without question over their bodies, sexuality and reproduction as a priority to achieve the agenda 2030.  

UNESCO recently released revised technical guidelines for comprehensive sex education (CSE), The publication identifies an urgent need for quality comprehensive sexuality education to: provide information and guidance to young people about the transition from childhood to adulthood and the physical, social and emotional challenges they face. tackle the challenges posed by sexual and reproductive health issues, which are particularly difficult during puberty, including access to contraception, early pregnancy, gender-based violence, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV and AIDS raise awareness of HIV prevention and transmission, of which only 34 per cent of young people around the world can demonstrate accurate knowledge complement or counter the large body of material of variable quality that young people find on the internet, and help them face increasingly common instances of cyberbullying. When UNFPA invited partners to a global conference on CSE in Norway, IPPF and its Norwegian member association Sex og Politikk decided to host a conference on CSE to feed into the Norwegian governments conference. On December 12-13 2017, almost 60 participants from 31 countries were gathered in Oslo, Norway to discuss CSE. In collaboration with IPPF secretariat, its central office and the six regional offices, Sex og Politikk prepared and hosted the conference. All the regions were represented by both member organisation representatives and regional office staff. After the welcoming speech by NORAD director of health and education Paul Fife on behalf of the Government of Norway a panel of CSE best practices around the world set the scene, where we could hear from representatives of IPPFs member associations (MAs) in India, Denmark, Palestine, Togo, Thailand and Colombia. Laura Hurley, technical adviser on youth at IPPF , gave an overview of the upcoming ‘CSE Institute’, which will be launched as a pilot in 2018. The Institute is working with the Swedish, Dutch and Danish MAs to develop technical assistance for other MAs wishing to build their CSE work, as part of the wider ‘Technical Assistance Network’ initiative. Two successful collaborations between IPPF MAs were also presented to inspire participants. RFSU Sweden’s collaboration with RHAC Cambodia on CSE, as well as Sex og Politikk Norway’s collaboration with CFPA Cyprus. A lot of time was set aside for group discussions at the conference, to ensure that everyone had the chance to share their experiences. One of the conclusions was that there is a lot to learn from each other and that there is vital work being done by IPPF and its member associations on CSE around the world. More specifically, the participants agreed on the importance of a multi-pronged approach to CSE, and including the whole community as much as possible both to deliver and to advocate for CSE. Another takeaway was to ensure a holistic approach to CSE on all levels. In many contexts, CSE can be controversial, and it is essential to know your context well in order to navigate the climate wisely. UNESCO, Jenelle Babb, presented the revised technical guidelines on CSE for us. Attendees were glad to learn that the guidelines shift from CSE as ‘prevention’ to a positive framework and that links to the Sustainable Development Goals are included. The conference concluded by agreeing a joint statement. The executive director of Sex og Politikk, Tor-Hugne Olsen, presented this statement to the UNFPA/Norway conference on December 14. By: Marianne Støle-Nilsen, Senior Advisor, Sex og Politikk The full report and summary can be found here.

IPPF welcomes the new International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education, which was published last week by UNESCO in collaboration with UNAIDS, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UN Women, and the World Health Organization (WHO). This Guidance calls for comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) for young people to promote health and wellbeing, respect for human rights and gender equality, and empowers children and young people to lead healthy, safe and productive lives.  The Technical Guidance is designed to assist education policy makers in all countries to design accurate and age-appropriate curricula for children and young people aged five and up. Based on a review of the current evidence and best practice from around the world, the Guidance notably demonstrates that high-quality, comprehensive sexuality education: can contribute to delayed sexual debut, increased use of condoms and other contraception methods, and may help promote more positive and healthy attitudes and behaviours regarding sexual and reproductive health is essential to combat the school dropout of girls due to early or forced marriage, teenage pregnancy and sexual and reproductive health issues is necessary because in some parts of the world, two out of three girls reported having no idea of what was happening to them when they began menstruating and pregnancy and childbirth complications are the second cause of death among 15 to 19-year olds The publication identifies an urgent need for quality comprehensive sexuality education to: provide information and guidance to young people about the transition from childhood to adulthood and the physical, social and emotional challenges they face. tackle the challenges posed by sexual and reproductive health issues, which are particularly difficult during puberty, including access to contraception, early pregnancy, gender-based violence, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV and AIDS raise awareness of HIV prevention and transmission, of which only 34 per cent of young people around the world can demonstrate accurate knowledge complement or counter the large body of material of variable quality that young people find on the internet, and help them face increasingly common instances of cyberbullying. IPPF is committed to increasing access to rights-based, inclusive CSE, and in 2016 we provided over 28 million young people with a quality-assured CSE programme. Our Framework for Comprehensive Sexuality Education supports the provision of CSE that equips young people with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values they need to determine and enjoy their sexuality – physically and emotionally, individually and in relationships. IPPF has reaffirmed this commitment by including CSE as a key objective of our Strategic Framework and pledging to enable one billion people to act freely on their sexual and reproductive health and rights by 2022. We congratulate all stakeholders who rallied together to produce this Guidance in support of young people’s right to education and information about their sexual and reproductive health and rights.  

The International Planned Parenthood Federation has praised the Governments, private companies and partner organisations making family planning commitments at today’s London Summit. Speaking at the summit, IPPF Director General Tewodros Melesse said: “IPPF welcomes the wonderful and generous commitments being made today by Governments, civil society and the private sector. As the largest provider of family planning services in the world, IPPF’s members know that access to family planning transforms the lives of women and girls. That is why it is vital that the 214 million women and girls around the world who want contraceptive care but are currently denied it must be given access to it. We know that tens of millions of women and young girls are forced into pregnancy every year because they do not have access to the contraceptive care they want and need. Reproductive rights exist only on paper without supplies. Without generous additional support the world’s poorest women and girls are asked to try to bridge a contraceptive funding gap from their own pockets – something they simply cannot do.” Today’s FP Summit is co-hosted by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Mr Melesse praised the UK Government for its announcement of an increase in funding for family planning of £45m a year for five years, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for its announcement of an additional £375m over four years for global family planning. Mr Melesse said: “These huge additional increases in funding from DFID and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the commitments made by so many other governments, private companies and partner organisations today show we are all united in our determination to reach those woman and girls currently underserved and overlooked. “IPPF has published a new report today which says that more women and girls than the entire population of Germany will find themselves forced into pregnancy just this year because they cannot get the contraceptive care they want and need. The vast majority of them are in developing countries. IPPF’s members work tirelessly to reach the poorest and most marginalised in these societies – we will build on the commitments of the London Summit today to reach even more of them than ever.”     Join our campaign: ask for universal access to contraception!

IPPF’s Director General, Tewodros Melesse, has paid tribute to the Government and people of Japan, following the announcement that Japan will support the provision of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for 2017.  The Japanese Government has announced that it will contribute approximately 3.1 billion yen (roughly $28 million) to IPPF and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in annual support.  Mr Melesse said: “IPPF is grateful for Japan’s continuing support to SRHR through funding IPPF and UNFPA. Particularly in the current negative climate around SRHR, Japan’s expression of its strong will to continue its support for SRHR is warmly welcome.”  “Japan’s long-lasting support for IPPF and for sexual and reproductive health care and rights has always been appreciated. These funds will help IPPF member associations around the world mitigate the cuts in funding we are seeing from some other sources. This will help protect health and save the lives of many people, especially women and girls.”  Mr Melesse added: “We agree completely with the Government of Japan when it says that the provision of services relating to sexual and reproductive health and rights is essential for realizing universal health coverage (UHC), that ensures affordable access to basic health services for all whenever they need them throughout their lives.  This is stated clearly in the Basic Design for Peace and Health, Japan’s global health policy and one of the outcome documents of the G7 Ise-Shima Summit, as well as in an outcome document from the The World Assembly for Women in Tokyo 2016 (WAW), the Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction and the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI).  IPPF would like to congratulate Japan’s leadership and commits to working closely with the Government of Japan to make a real difference to the lives of women, men and young people in around world and to achieve the Strategic Development Goals.”  IPPF received approximately $1.13m  from Japan in early 2017 for its activities targeted to Syrian refugees and internally displaced people, and will receive funding of $7.76m which was recently approved by the Japanese Parliaments.