Updated:19 March 2020 Update: This appeal is now closed and all funds raised by 18 March were transferred to our partner the China Family Planning Association to contribute to their services. Further funds raised through the appeal will be used to help our Member Associations impacted by coronavirus. As of 10 February 2020, the novel coronavirus outbreak in China is ongoing and the number of cases continues to rise. In addition to the risk from the virus itself, there is a critical impact on the safe provision of other vital health services in China, including sexual and reproductive healthcare. IPPF’s member association in China, the China Family Planning Association (CFPA), has millions of volunteers and staff providing people with information, education, counselling and social services related to family planning, maternal and child health, healthier childbearing and adolescent sexual and reproductive health. We’re launching an appeal to give as much assistance to them as we can. That includes help in reducing the chance of contracting or transmitting the virus. It’s vital that volunteers and staff stay as safe as possible as they continue to support vulnerable groups, including women, young people and migrants. IPPF’s Director-General Dr Alvaro Bermejo said: “Global support for China is needed now. IPPF’s member association in China, the China Family Planning Association, is playing a vital role in maintaining its services as much as possible throughout the outbreak. In turn, we are going to do as much as we can to support CFPA’s volunteers and staff. That will include supplying badly needed commodities such as face masks, along with other prevention measures. China’s emergency is our emergency too.” CFPA’s Standing Vice President Mr. Wang Peian said: “The work of our volunteers and staff remains vital. CFPA is actively involved in disseminating knowledge about novel coronavirus, sourcing and distributing masks, assisting the health department by monitoring the health situation in communities on a daily basis, and setting up hotlines for psychological consultations. We continue to provide sexual and reproductive healthcare across China, as well as other provisions for both medical professionals and patients to help stop the spread of novel coronavirus especially for vulnerable people. We are grateful for the support of IPPF, and to everyone who makes a donation.” Our emergency fund will allow us to reach more people with these much needed, and overlooked, services. 100% of donations made to this fund by 18 March were transferred to our partner the China Family Planning Association to contribute to their  services. Want to know more? Take a look at the World Health Organization's latest information on novel coronavirus.  

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 International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) has marked the start of the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 by unveiling ambitious new commitments to drive forward gains in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). On the first day of the Summit, IPPF Director General Dr Alvaro Bermejo revealed four new key pledges covering comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), abortion care, the fight against discriminatory laws covering sexual identity and gender expression, and South to South cooperation between IPPF national Member Associations. Dr Bermejo told global and national leaders gathered to mark 25 years since the landmark International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) that all participants at the Summit needed to recommit to transforming the lives of women and girls. He said: “179 national governments signed up to the ICPD Programme of Action in Cairo 25 years ago. But signing is one thing, implementing another. It’s still about translating commitments on paper into action; action to transform the lives of women and girls and marginalised groups. This has to be a priority.     This Summit is needed because although Cairo was a monumental achievement, the years since have not fulfilled its promise.   Twenty-five years ago, it felt like the tide of progress was flowing only one way. Authoritarianism was in retreat, or maybe even defeated. It doesn’t feel like that now. This conference is hugely important for SRHR. IPPF will be influencing governments to announce national commitments to re-endorse ICPD and make sure it become a reality, and changes women’s and girls’ lives for the better.   And we are proud to make our own renewed commitments today. The ICPD Programme of Action continues to guide the work of IPPF Member Associations in every part of the world where we serve a woman, a girl or a young person and support their sexual and reproductive freedom.” Dr Bermejo unveiled four new commitments: (i)    By 2025 IPPF, together with Rutgers, its national Member Association in the Netherlands, will:  Provide 12 million young people in 30 focus countries with a specific focus on Africa, South-East Asia and Latin America/the Caribbean with comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), in and out of schools, through evidence-based approaches including innovative and digital ones. Influence governments of 42 countries to establish new or revised policy initiatives and/or legislative changes to include CSE into curricula of formal education programs or programs for out-of-school adolescents. Jointly establish at least three Centers of Excellence in priority regions to work in youth-centered programming and CSE and to build local capacity to deliver high-quality integrated gender and rights-based CSE. (ii)    By 2022, IPPF will:   Accelerate universal access to safe abortion by expanding the provision of quality and women-centered comprehensive abortion care, with a focus on implementing innovative strategies to reach underserved populations; providing support to women to self-manage medical abortion and improving access to and availability of medical abortion commodities. Champion reproductive freedom and stand firm against reproductive coercion by advocating for safe and legal abortion, and by defeating obstacles that undermine women’s reproductive autonomy. We will influence 20 governments to establish new or revised policy initiatives or to pass legislative changes in support of improved access to abortion. (iii)    IPPF commits to increase South-to-South triangular cooperation by establishing at least seven Centers of Excellence to accelerate cross-Federation learning and fostering a Member Association centric approach, in areas such as comprehensive sexuality education, sexual and reproductive health in humanitarian settings, supporting social movements, and enhancing female leadership by 2022. (iv)    IPPF and many of its Member Associations are fighting discriminatory laws based on sexual orientation and gender identity. We commit to supporting each other and engaging with partners to ensure at least six countries change these laws by 2025.

Co-sponsored by Catholics for Choice, Center for Health and Gender Equality (CHANGE), Center for Reproductive Rights, Centro de Promoción y Defensa de los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos (PROMSEX), CHOICE for Youth and Sexuality, Danish Family Planning Association (Sex og Samfund), DSW (Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevoelkerung), Fundación Mexicana para la Planeación Familiar, A.C. (Mexfam), ILGA World, International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC), International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), IPPF/Africa Regional Office, Irish Family Planning Association, Le Planning Familiar, Mujer y Salud Uruguay (MYSU), Planned Parenthood Federation of American (PPFA), Plan International, Profamilia Colombia, Rutgers, Sex og Politikk, Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI), Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU), and Women's Link Worldwide. This year we celebrate the 25th anniversary of International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and its Program of Action (PoA), a landmark moment for human rights, where 179 countries recognized that reproductive rights are part of existing human rights, and marked a shift to a human rights-based approach to population and development policies, with a focus on ensuring health, equality, empowerment and rights for all while upholding the principles of non- violence, and non-discrimination. Critically, it recognized the centrality of the indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated nature of human rights to issues of population and sustainable development, in line with the UDHR and the Vienna Declaration. Since then, Member States have repeatedly reaffirmed their commitments to the ICPD PoA, including in the 2030 Agenda, and Treaty Monitoring Bodies (TMBs) have significantly built on the rights delineated in the PoA and furthered human rights standards pertaining to sexual and reproductive rights. However, while some progress in implementation has taken place, too much remains to be done. Therefore, we welcome the Nairobi Summit on ICPD+25 which will once again bring together Member States and different stakeholders to mobilize the political will and financial commitments urgently needed to implement the ICPD Agenda, putting the voices and rights of women and girls at the center of conversations, and meet the 3 zeros: zero gender-based violence, zero unmet need for family planning, and zero preventable maternal deaths. As we approach September 28th, the International Safe Abortion Day, whose theme for 2019 is “abortion is healthcare,” we cannot ignore that legal and policy barriers to safe abortion make unsafe abortion one of the global leading causes of maternal mortality*,  which in most cases are preventable if all people, especially women and adolescents, have access to safe, legal abortion.  Let’s not deny the evidence: safe abortion saves lives. If Member States are serious about ending maternal mortality, the legal, policy, social, cultural and economic barriers to access safe abortion must be addressed. We urge all Member States to make meaningful, measurable national commitments in Nairobi to increase access to safe and legal abortion, in accordance with their legal obligations under international human rights law, in an effort to reach zero preventable maternal deaths, and to commit to report on progress in its implementation. (*Lisa B Haddad, MD, MA, and Nawal M Nour, MD, MPH, Unsafe Abortion: Unnecessary Maternal Mortality, Rev Obstet Gynecol. 2009 Spring; 2(2): 122–126, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2709326/; Su Mon Latt, Allison Milner & Anne Kavanagh, Abortion laws reform may reduce maternal mortality: an ecological study in 162 countries, BMC Women's Health 2019 19(1) https://bmcwomenshealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12905-018-0705-y. See also Medecins Sans Frontiers, 2019 Unsafe abortion: a forgotten emergency, https://www.msf.org/unsafe-abortion-forgotten-emergency-womens-health; Susheela Singh, Lisa Remez, Gilda Sedgh, Lorraine Kwok and Tsuyoshi Onda, Guttmacher Institute, Abortion Worldwide 2017: Uneven Progress and Unequal Access (2018) https://www.guttmacher.org/report/abortion-worldwide-2017)

IPPF is pleased to welcome a successful outcome from the Commission on the Status of Women at its 63rd Session this year, focusing on “Social Protection, Access to Public Services, and Sustainable Infrastructure for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls.” The Agreed Conclusions provide vital guidance on the role that social protection, public services and sustainable infrastructure can have in dismantling unequal systems of power that disadvantage women and girls.  Taking on the topic for the first time, Member States emphasized that social protection, public services and sustainable infrastructure are interlinked and mutually reinforcing; stressed the need for coordinated approaches, financing and policy coherence; and requested the revision of cash transfer conditionalities that reinforce gender stereotypes.  They urged a comprehensive, integrated approach to ensure gender-responsive policy-making, specifically calling for gender-responsive migration policies, social protection floors, accountability mechanisms for social protection, public services and sustainable infrastructure projects, and strategies to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Furthermore, Member States recognized that health disparities, including reproductive health and inadequate access to family planning services, are exacerbated by multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and urged governments to ensure acceptable, accessible, available and quality health care services. As in past years, the Commission reaffirmed the need for governments to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights and the human rights of women including the right to have control over and decide freely on all matters relating to their sexuality. The Agreed Conclusions also reaffirmed prior agreements on education, gender-based violence, the need for policies that address the diverse needs of families, as well as the responsibility of the state to protect women human rights defenders. We congratulate the Member States for finding common ground on critical issues and demonstrating the continued critical importance of the Commission on the Status of Women and defending and advancing women and girls’ rights year after year, despite particularly aggressive strategies this by some groups attempting to chip away at established rights for women and girls. IPPF is committed to remaining a strong partner in protecting and promoting women and girls’ rights and we look forward to the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action in 2020.  

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.