For 70 years IPPF has championed and delivered quality services, comprehensive information and advocated for just laws so that more people in more places under more circumstances may realize their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Started with an act of international solidarity between activists from just a handful of countries, IPPF has since grown into a broad and diverse community of services providers and advocates that stretches around the Earth.
Our very existence manifests just how the demand for dignity in sexual and reproductive health and rights is universal to people the world over. But that world is changing rapidly. Tough challenges must be confronted – the toxic legacies of longstanding racism, sexism and homophobia, for example; the deepening impacts of the climate crisis, violence, and inequalities; the escalating consequences of new technologies, population displacements, and habitat destruction.
Wherever such dynamics impact people’s lives, IPPF knows enjoyment of SRHR is impacted too. Whenever people confront humanitarian crises, we know their SRHR are thrust into crisis too. Whoever is subject to prejudice, bigotry, or exclusion, has their access to SRHR also eroded. We know that the worst consequences of those injustices are borne by young people in the poorest of communities, in the toughest of places, facing the fewest opportunities.
To be impactful in a world of change, IPPF must change too. That is what Strategy 2028 is all about: changing IPPF so it is well equipped to uphold SRHR for those who are left out, locked out or left behind. Our Strategy 2028 sets out a familiar path but in a new direction over far tougher terrain to that clear destination. We will walk that path shoulder to shoulder with young people, and with individuals and communities bearing the full brunt of stigma and prejudice. At each step, we will defend, protect, and celebrate safety, pleasure and wellbeing in sex and reproduction. At every turn, we will denounce powers and authorities who, through policy, practice, and law, undermine dignity and human rights in those intimate realms. And, as IPPF, we will be accountable for who we are, what we do and how we do it.
That is our Strategy 2028. It is with immense pride that the IPPF Board of Trustees shares this strategic itinerary with you. We very much hope you will travel this road with us – in your own realities, communities, and contexts. Let’s do that together. Let’s come together, for sexual and reproductive dignity for all - for each and every one of us, to the exclusion of none of us, in the interests of all of us.
Kate Gilmore,
Chair, BoT, IPPF
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