Raising our Voices: Global Campaigning for SRHR

Dear WGNRR supporters,

I hope you had a meaningful Women's Month! Thank you for mobilizing with us toward advancing women's rights and gender equality!

The first quarter of the year has been eventful for us at WGNRR. We participated in the Asia-Pacific Regional Consultation for the 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women. We joined Civil Society Organizations, UNESCAP Member States, and other key stakeholders in examining gaps to progress toward gender equality and empowerment of women and girls in Asia and the Pacific Region. 

We went to New York for the CSW67, where we held parallel events with partners in SRHR work. On March 13, together with ARROW and Safe Abortion Advocacy Initiative Global South Engagement (SAIGE) we had a panel on “Leveraging Digital Innovations for Improving Access to Abortion,” where we stressed that decriminalizing abortion is paramount to ensuring services, including medical abortions are available and accessible, and technology and online spaces play a crucial role in this advocacy. On the 15th, we held “Pinky’s Choice - the power of music in telling the stories of women for gender equality” with Hidden Pockets Collective and Fos Feminista. We jammed out with feminists and activists through a Zumba dance to Pasya Music Album’s “Buo” (Whole), a song celebrating bodily autonomy. Feminists and activists took to the streets of New York in commemoration of International Women’s Day, demanding rights for migrant workers and all women, #SRHR4ALL, and to #StopTheAttacks against all women human rights defenders (WHRDs) such as #IamJustyna.

Towards SRHR and reproductive justice!

Last February 3, we were at the Kick-Off meeting of the Co-Impact supported multiregional initiative "Kaleidoscope" in Kenya. The initiative aims to focus on sexual and reproductive health and rights and justice in Benin, India, Kenya, and Nepal. The initiative is steered by The Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women (ARROW), WGNRR, MAMA Network, and Global Fund for Women.

More than 200 Young People Gather to Raise Awareness and Bust Stigma on CSE

WGNRR Africa, IPAS alliance and Youth Collective Actions Now (YouCAN) Dar es salaam partners conducted an awareness-raising session and stigma reduction on access to comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) for young people. It was hugely successful, with nearly 250 students participating in fun activities, story-sharing, and learning exchanges at Kitunda primary school in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Women’s Month 2023: #SRHR4All is essential to gender equality!

March was Women’s Month! For this year, we highlighted the centrality of promoting #SRHR4ALL to technology and digital innovation in achieving gender equality.

Read #SRHR4All is essential to gender equality (lttps://wgnrr.org/womens-month-2023-srhr4all-is-essential-to-gender-equality/)

WGNRR, Hesperian Apps - Reproductive Health, and Women on Web took over social media to highlight the importance of mobile and ICT tools to accessing sexual and reproductive healthcare and information, thus essential to the full realization of #SRHR4ALL. We went live on Instagram to discuss access gaps to technology and digital innovation and how this impacts access to SRH information.

WE NEED TO ACT FAST, WE NEED TO ACT NOW! As the Philippines commemorates Women’s Month, drawing on gender equality and inclusive society, advocates sound the alarm over HIV cases among adolescents. This is a stark reminder for the government to uphold its commitments to SRHR and gender equality.

Read our statement now: https://wgnrr.org/we-need-to-act-faster-and-we-need-to-act-now/

It was an honor to work alongside #SRHRActivistsInAction around the world. Let us continue to call for rights-based, gender-just online spaces and technological innovations that promote #SRHR4All, upholding people's right to bodily autonomy, privacy, and enjoyment of scientific progress, among all other human rights.

 The WGNRR Team