Raising our Voices: Global Campaigning for SRHR

Dear WGNRR allies, supporters, and partners,

Thank you for supporting us during #GivingTuesday! We were able to raise a total of USD1,563 during the campaign. This amount will enable us to develop campaign toolkits and materials. Thank you all for your generousity.

We are also happy to update that the September 28 - International Safe Abortion Day was a huge success! The online and offline activities mobilized millions and spoke out for the right to safe and accessible abortions everywhere, regardless of global uncertainties, intersecting crises, and unjust laws! Particularly, our partners from the Global South made waves online to say #SafeAbortionRegardless - abortions should be safe regardless of crisis situations and uncertainties and advocates persist regardless of challenges hurled at us.

In this report we are read more about our engagements with SRHR accountability mechanisms nationally and across regions, particularly for and with young people. Lastly, we were at the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP2022) in Pattaya, Thailand in November where we also had strategic planning session prior to joining thousands of SRHR and family planning advocates at ICPF2022.

The WGNRR Team

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#SRHRActivistsInAction

Our Executive Director, Marevic Parcon, was among a panel of abortion rights activists at the Persevering against the odds: Standing up for Abortion Rights in Restrictive Environments, a special webinar by the International Conference on Family Planning 2022 and International Planned Parenthood Federation. She spoke about artivism, and grassroots and young people-led movements for abortion rights; she also puts forward the call to mobilize resources to grassroots and youth-led organizations for them to continue taking positive actions toward ensuring safe abortions everywhere.

WGNRR Africa's Program Management Officer, Fabiola Odira, joined African civil society organizations for a knowledge-sharing and learning workshop in Nairobi, Kenya that seeks to create enabling civic environments for advocacy and grassroots movements. Organizations like WGNRR Africa engage with regional human rights bodies like the African Commission on Human and People's Rights and African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child to continuously seek accountability for their human rights commitments including commitments to SRHR and eliminating violence against women and girls.

WGNRR Africa’s Regional Director, Nondo Ejano joins the panel at the Ipas Africa Alliance Learning Summit with the theme “Bridging the Gap on Reproductive Justice and reflecting upon World Safe Abortion and Contraceptive Days” held on October 4 and 5 at Kenya. He discusses policy advocacy achievements, best practices, lessons and strategic recommendations to bridge the gap on reproductive justice in Africa. 

Last August, we submitted an NGO alternative report on the status of adolescents’ reproductive rights. The report was one of the documents considered by the committee on its review of the Philippines in September. They considered the issues that we raised and urged the Philippine Government to, among others, ensure adolescents’ access to modern contraception and confidential testing and HIV treatment without parental consent, ensure comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in schools, address sexual violence, and review of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act No. 10354. And for the first time, the UNCRC urges the government to legalize abortion and ensure access to abortion and post-abortion care services for adolescent girls. Read our joint statement here.

“It was a huge gathering of the global reproductive health community, as policymakers, practitioners, researchers, advocates, young people, private sector, and donors came together to discuss achievements, innovations, and best practices on family planning and reproductive health. But it was clear that barriers to universal access to sexual and reproductive health services remain, especially in areas such as safe abortion. The insight that inspired me the most is that we need to learn from the journey of women and girls in accessing services and working towards eliminating the barriers there are. To enable their power over their bodies and reproductive lives while calling for state accountability in ensuring an enabling environment through policies and availability of services.” - Teta Sibugon, Asia Projects Coordinator.

Pre-ICFP we joined the first ever global convention of Safe Abortion Advocacy Initiative - Global South Engagement (SAIGE). The event saw 50 advocates from across Asia, Africa, and Latin America coming together to discuss access to safe abortion in different contexts including existing barriers and challenges, and explore strategic advocacy opportunities. WGNRR is a As a founding member and advisory committee member.

Our youth delegates from Young Advocates for SRHR and the WGNRR Officers participated in the ICPF Youth Pre-Conference on 13th November. See their post here.

During the ICFP conference we presented at the panel entitled 'Galvanizing Grassroots Movement through Feminist Philanthropy in Advancing Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice'. Our Executive Director, Marevic Parcon together with ARROW's Executive Director, Sivananthi Thanethiran, Ankit Gupta (Global Fund for Women), Ayenekulu Ayesaw (Maverick Collective by PSI), and Althea Anderson (Hewlett Foundation) talked about the challenges faced by organisations in the development sector and shifting priorities in addressing unpaid development work. Moderated by Amruta Byatnal from Devex, the session also highlighted the support needed by grassroots movements, the need for organisations and funders to take risks in experimenting new funding models to ensure transformative work, and the importance of intersectionality in Feminist Funding.

We also joined the Asia Pacific Alliance for SRHR, YouthLEAD and Equal Asia at the joint live segment that features a cross-constituency panel discussion to explore how the movement for bodily autonomy in Asia underpins the achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in the region. The session highlighted intersectional leadership from LGBTIQ community, abortion activists, and young people’s SRHR, amongst others, from across the region of Asia.  

We engaged the expertise of Relativ Impact to conduct a 3-month review of the 2020-2022 Strategic Plans and facilitate the development of the WGNRR's Theory of Change (ToC) and Strategic Plan for the years 2023 - 2025, together with the WGNRR team. As part of the process, WGNRR board & staff came together in Pattaya, Thailand. We will soon share the 2023-2025 Strategic Plan!