Bruges, June 15th. Around 100 volunteers and professionals of European and Asian member associations of the International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network (IPPF EN) gathered in Belgium to connect with and support each other in the promotion of SRHR. The IPPF EN annual meeting was centred around the overall theme “Building Bridges and Connecting through Values”.
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Examples from Ireland, Croatia, Finland and other countries show that IPPF member associations face hostility in their fight to ensure that all people can enjoy their fundamental rights and make choices about their sexuality, reproduction and well-being. For this reason, IPPF EN decided many years ago to break out of the self-imposed boundaries of the SRHR sector and started to build bridges.  

“Progress in SRHR requires confrontation of the barriers embedded in laws, policies, the economy, and in social norms and values (….) that prevent people from achieving sexual and reproductive health.”

This is what the Guttmacher-Lancet Commission “Accelerate progress – sexual and reproductive health and rights for all” states in no uncertain terms. ​The report documents the magnitude of the SRHR needs, provides a comprehensive definition of SRHR and a roadmap on how to advance universal access to SRHR.

​The commission underlines that the improvement of people’s health depends on individuals’ ability to make decisions about their own sexual and reproductive lives and respecting the decisions of others. The commission’s report is the result of two years of joint collaboration of 16 respected SRHR experts from different parts of the world. Belgian Prof. Dr. Marleen Temmerman was one of them. 

With a High-Level Panel on the European Development Days, Belgium raised attention for the unmet needs of adolescents.
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June 6, Brussels. "Unsafe abortion is more accessible then contraceptives”, Young EDD leader Archane Phonsina said, in her testimony of young women’s challenges in the DR Congo. Phonsina lost one of her best friends to an unsafe abortion and is one of the leading voices for adolescents’ access to family planning and safe abortion in her country. “Simply speaking about family planning is still stigmatised and many girls will have at least two unsafe abortions in their lifetime”, she explained.