Opportunity for advocates in the Philippines: Call to co-organize SRHR4All Dialogues

January 23, 2024

SRHR4ALL Dialogues: Strengthening Accountability and Building Transformative Agenda

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Background

Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) mean that people have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexual and reproductive health, free from coercion, discrimination, and violence. It has crucial implications for the health and well-being of women, girls, and gender-diverse people. It is also recognized as central to development efforts for gender equality and is a critical element of sustainable development and inclusive growth. But what does the future hold for SRHR, and what is our shared vision of it? What pathways do we take to reach that future?

Though many countries have made progress towards realizing SRHR, it continues to be systematically violated worldwide. Structural inequities and crises create extreme gaps in access to SRH information and services, restricting sexual and reproductive freedoms. The world is approaching the 30th year of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), but despite numerous affirmations of ICPD’s commitments, much remains to be done. We are also halfway to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal Agenda. However, many women and girls still die from preventable causes, lack access to essential healthcare, and live in fear, discrimination, and violence. What roadblocks persist? What are the emerging SRHR risks and opportunities for individuals across the life course? What challenges or opportunities do new knowledge, innovations, and technologies present?

As in many other contexts, women, girls, and gender-diverse Filipinos face economic, socio-cultural, and political barriers in claiming their SRHR. That is why strengthening accountability processes is crucial, as underscored by the global strategies and commitments. We have made strides, particularly in legislative frameworks. However, many of these laws’ promises fall through the cracks in implementation and resourcing; hence, the role of civil society and grassroots organizations in seeking accountability, raising awareness, changing behaviors, and providing services to close the gaps are crucial. With these, participation,  effectiveness,  and sustainability have become critical areas to examine for those working to advance SRHR. What strategies work best and how to ensure we can sustain the outcomes? 

Claiming sexual and reproductive health and rights occurs within the context of multiple inequalities and concurrent crises. We are acutely aware that the interplay of existing structures and systems influences SRHR. Gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, class, and other forms of discrimination intersect, compounding marginalization. The SRHR4All Dialogues brings together SRHR advocates, other civil society organizations, and human rights actors to engage in an intersectional and intergenerational conversation, envisioning the future and charting pathways forward.

The Dialogue Serie seeks to create spaces for women’s rights organizations, youth-led organizations, other civil society organizations, and advocates to share experiences and learnings towards defining a transformative agenda and to share effective practices and strategies to strengthen accountability towards #SRHR4All. 

Objectives

The SRHR4All Dialogues aim to create a safe, collaborative, and critical space for collective reflection, questioning and learning, and setting directions for the realization of sexual and reproductive health and rights for all among SRHR advocates and organizations, women’s rights and youth-led groups, and other organizations across social justice movements. 

Through the conversations, we aim to: 

  • Map pathways to advance SRHR. We will gather recommendations to determine our priority agenda and the strategies to strengthen accountability, thereby enhancing the impact of our work. We will also look into what is being overlooked, both in terms of critical areas of SRHR and marginalized groups. 
  • Discuss trends, shifts, and innovations in knowledge, strategies, and challenges we face. We will explore what new evidence tells us in terms of risks and opportunities for SRHR across an individual’s life course, spanning various sectors. Advancing SRHR also entails challenging deeply ingrained cultural norms and values that have existed throughout history. We also have been navigating the same economic and political structures and systems. Gaining insights into how the major roadblocks have evolved over time and identifying our best practices to confront them are crucial for working more purposefully and effectively.  

Organizing the SRHR4ALL Dialogues

The SRHR4All Dialogues will bring together participants from diverse sectors and disciplines, including activists, advocates, researchers, students, service providers, and grassroots.

To empower movement-building, we are opening the organization of the dialogues for collaboration with women’s rights and youth-led organizations, as well as other civil society organizations. Interested organizations may choose to organize a dialogue event around a sector (rural women, workers, LGBTQIA+, youth) or theme (e.g., climate change, SOGIESC, ASRHR, abortion, innovations on SRHR, service delivery, artivism, disaster). The dialogue may be conducted online, in person, or as a combination of both throughout January 2024 to March 2024. A documentation and knowledge management tool will be used to ensure that we can capture common themes and establish shared knowledge. Organizations hosting sessions will be supported to cover event costs.

The series of dialogues will conclude with a National Symposium, where various sectors will converge to synthesize themes and outputs from the preceding dialogue events. From this synthesis, we will develop a knowledge product that encapsulates our collective vision of SRHR. This product will identify effective strategies to strengthen accountability, describe emerging issues, and highlight opportunities.

Applying to Organize a Dialogue

We invite organizations or groups to organize a dialogue and contribute to our collective understanding of what it means to achieve SRHR4All.

Identify your dialogue’s focus. Identify the sectoral or a thematic focus of your dialogue. Of course, you may eventually touch on the intersections of a sector with different themes or vice versa. All we ask is that you create a dialogue among your participants on these areas:

  • What is your vision for SRHR for All, and what pathways do we take to reach that future? 
  • What roadblocks persist, and what emerging risks do we face? 
  • Are there new knowledge, innovations, and technologies related to SRHR, and what challenges or opportunities do they pose? 
  • What strategies work best to advocate for SRHR, and how can we ensure the sustainability of the outcomes?

What if we wish to address issues beyond those four areas? Absolutely! Feel free to expand the scope of your discussion beyond those areas. We encourage the Dialogues to create space for broadening perspectives and enabling participants to explore issues that may have been left unexplored in the past. 

Develop a concept note and program. Following the overarching concept note of the SRHR4All Dialogues, provide a background on your chosen focus and construct a rationale. Identify your target participants as well. Next, design our Dialogue to suit your chosen focus and participants. You may organize a standalone dialogue or integrate it as a side-event to another larger event (e.g., as part of your general assembly or as a session in a symposium). Your dialogue may take the form of community discussions, focus group discussions (in-person or online), panel discussions with an open forum, creative processes, and any other innovative forms you want to explore.

Develop a budget plan. WGRNRR can support your Dialogue by augmenting costs such as local travels, meals, venue, and printing of materials. 

Share your dialogue to us. Send your concept note and budget plan to WGNRR at office@wgnrr.org with the subject “We want to host for the SRHR4ALL Dialogue!”. We will set a meeting with you to discuss your concept notes and plans. Save the date. Once your plans are good to go, we’ll work together to set a date, time, and venue.

What is SRHR?

The Guttmacher-Lancet Commission provides an integrated framework on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) including a package of interventions as a comprehensive approach to SRHR. Click here to read Accelerate progress—sexual and reproductive health and rights for all: report of the Guttmacher–Lancet Commission.