March 24, 2022 – After several years of planning, coordinating, and strategizing, we are thrilled to announce Ibis’s Africa Region Strategy for 2022-2025—an extension of our global strategic plan for 2018-2023, which affirms our commitment to advancing sexual and reproductive autonomy, choices, and health worldwide.
“As we broaden our work in the Africa region, it is critical to respond to sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice issues in a way that highlights lived realities across the region. To achieve this, we aim to improve and expand abortion access to wider geographies, exploring innovative ways to do so—especially in countries with abortion restrictions—while also building on our existing body of work in the region,” said Tshegofatso Bessenaar, Director of Southern Africa Programs.
The Africa Region Strategy expands Ibis’s research agenda by identifying key partners and broadening our local networks, highlighting strategy and research driven by our South Africa team. We also seek to transform access to sexual and reproductive health care by responding to gaps in HIV/AIDS, GBV, and LGBTQI+ research. And we will continue to nourish principled partnerships grounded in respect, mutual accountability, transparent and equitable sharing of power, and the use of research results to positively impact people’s lives, uplifting the work of advocates, policymakers, and the communities where we conduct our research.
Each of these steps will bring us closer to our vision of an Africa where high-quality sexual and reproductive health information and services are easy to access, affordable for all, and available without unnecessary medical requirements or legal impediments; and where policies are grounded in rigorous evidence and designed to improve the lives and health of all people, and everyone has the power to exercise their human right to live a pleasurable, safe, and healthy sexual and reproductive life.