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Covid-19 didn’t stop us! This year, we did things slightly differently, we’ll did it the youth’s way! To mark the International Day of the Girl (11th October) our coalition of nine Civil Society Organisations joined forces for the eighth time, bringing together a group of close to 30 young advocates, from Europe and Africa, who connected online to share their recommendations with European Union decision-makers.  This year’s EWAG focused on the relationship between the European Union (EU) and Africa. In the framework of EWAG the young advocates were provided a platform to speak out about how the EU-Africa partnership can reflect their aspirations and unlock their potential. The partnership reflected the points of views of both regions, allowing for mutual learning and joint and coordinated actions, especially on issues that affect girls and young women both in the EU and the Africa – such as sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), Education and Economic Empowerment and Political Participation. Over the summer of 2020 the EWAG young advocates connected on several occasions to define their recommendations to the EU in four key areas. Throughout the course of October, in light of the International Day of the Girl, they spoke out to EU decision-makers on distinct challenges girls face based on their age and gender and how they believe the EU-Africa Partnership could address their concerns to make sure it truly makes a contribution to girls’ lives and their futures. These are their asks.

111 organizations express deep concern regarding current threats to reproductive rights in Slovakia. The Slovak Parliament is currently debating draft legislation that if adopted would impose new barriers to accessing lawful abortion care, harm women’s health and well-being, and undermine their decision-making and privacy. It would also force doctors to act in conflict with their professional obligations to their patients. The draft legislation seeks to double the medically unnecessary mandatory waiting period currently required before accessing abortion on request and extend its application, impose a new layer of medical authorization requirements for abortion on health grounds, and introduce a requirement forcing women to state the reasons for seeking an abortion and to provide other private information when requesting an abortion. The draft legislation also seeks to restrict the information that medical professionals can provide publicly about abortion care, and to strengthen the dissuasive nature of the mandatory information doctors are required to provide to women seeking abortion. Together with other civil society organisations, we call on all Members of Parliament to reject this regressive and harmful legislative proposal and to refrain from further attempts to restrict women’s reproductive rights in Slovakia.

Our #BecauseSheCounts social media campaign asks decision-makers to put universal health care, human rights and equality at the core of all public policy and funding decision, amid the pandemic and always. To join our campaign, share our #BecauseSheCounts messages and visuals and tag us @C2030Europe! Ask your governments to continue to prove that solidarity goes beyond borders and should not be limited to European Union countries. Find our social media campaign package here.

Access to abortion care underpins women and girls’ reproductive health. And yet around Europe and Central Asia, they are faced with obstacles that threaten their safety, dignity and freedom. Governments and the international community should work to safeguard the right of women and girls to lead free and safe reproductive lives without discrimination and coercion.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences have endangered everyone’s health. But in almost all European countries, women have been particularly affected by a significant restriction in access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care, and abortion care in particular. Despite the difficulties they encountered, IPPF EN members and partners stepped up to protect people’s reproductive safety from the very start of the crisis. As healthcare providers, they innovated and adapted their own service-delivery models to continue to provide care to the most vulnerable. As advocates, they pushed their governments to take the necessary policy and legislative measures to guarantee access to care for all. 95% of our members reported having carried out advocacy during the pandemic. This factsheet highlights the crucial role IPPF EN members and partners played in the early months of the pandemic, both as healthcare providers and as advocates.

The overall group income of IPPF has risen by US$51.8 million (46 per cent) to US$163.7 million (2018: US$111.9 million). Unrestricted total income and restricted income rose by US$1.9 million and US$49.86 million respectively. IPPF’s main source of funding is government grants, which account for 88 per cent (2018: 81 per cent) of total income. In 2019 unrestricted government funding increased by US$2.2 million (4 per cent) to US$57.4 million. The main reason for the increase in funding in 2019 was the increase in funding from Germany which rose from €6 million to €12 million. Restricted government funding amounted to US$87 million, up from US$35.2 million in 2018. A full analysis of restricted projects balances. The following Governments were the major contributors to the restricted funding of IPPF: Government of United Kingdom,through the WISH programme in Africa, South Asia and the Arab World US$59.23 million, the European Commission supported the State of African Women Campaign US$4.6 million, Government of Canada US$4.3 million, Government of Australia continued to provide support (US$2.4 million) in relation to the global SPRINTInitiative to provide sexual and reproductive health services to crisisand post crisis areas in South East Asia, the Pacific, South Asia andGovernment of Belgium contributed to the SHE Decides project US$2.07 million. The governments of the Netherlands, Norway, UK and an anonymous donor also provided funding of US$5.64 million to the Safe Abortion Action Fund. Grants from multilateral donors and other sources decreased by 13 per cent from US$20.7 million to US$18.1 million. A significant factor in the decrease was US$0.6 million from GIZ, US$0.26 million from Anonymous donors, and US$0.7 million decrease from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.