Showing links between climate and SRHR is a priority: Women Deliver's director of policy and advocacy

Ahead of Women Deliver 2023, the organization's director of policy and advocacy has said much more needs to be done in terms of advocacy for every person to have access to the full range of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).

Divya Mathew also said she was looking forward to new research being launched at Women Deliver 2023 scheduled for July 17-20 in Kigali, Rwanda, including a qualitative study conducted in partnership with the Population Council examining adolescent perspectives on the climate crisis and the linkages with SRHR. Women Deliver has also partnered with the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual & Reproductive Rights on a Global Contraception Atlas to help inform policymakers on how countries have performed when it comes to contraception policy, she said.

Exemplars News spoke with Mathew about these and other topics, including how Women Deliver is using evidence and data to galvanize action and drive progress in SRHR and other areas.

Policy and advocacy play a huge role in advancing SRHR worldwide. Could you provide an overview of Women Deliver's policy and advocacy priorities related to SRHR?

Mathew: We advocate for the full range of safeguarding SRHR, which includes access to safe abortion and contraception, but also for universal health coverage design and implementation. Even through the pandemic, we were still advocating for gender equality and SRHR to be a core part of COVID-19 response and recovery. We also have some other issue areas that relate to SRHR – one of our programs looks at the links between climate and SRHR. Women Deliver also co-founded the SRHR and Climate Justice Coalition, which has led to some 60 organizations working on the intersections of SRHR and climate, including from the women's rights and health movements. We helped launch this coalition to try to break down the silos between the climate, health, and women’s rights in policy spaces, such as COP and health convenings that examine these intersections. Those are the two main areas we focus on.

Intersectionality is a critical aspect of SRHR since different groups face unique challenges and barriers. How does Women Deliver incorporate an intersectional lens into its research, policy and advocacy work to address the specific needs of marginalized populations?

Mathew: When we say we advocate for all girls and women, we fundamentally acknowledge this is associated with layered, intersecting identities of people. This comes across in our work in a few ways. In our research, we've drilled down at times into specific populations. For example, last year we looked at the impact of COVID-19 on safeguarding SRHR, but with a youth lens where we engaged with young people in the design of the research and the implementation, as well as the creation of policy recommendations.

A lot of our work is also in coalition and partnerships. By doing so, we ensure that representatives from marginalized populations are present. For example, Women Deliver is one of the co-founders of The Alliance for Gender Equality and UHC, which is the only civil society coalition that advocates for the safeguarding of gender equality and SRHR in UHC design and implementation. Through our work on collective action, we also make sure that perspectives from the ground and lower and middle-income countries are fed into global policy moments. These are just some ways we work with different lenses.

Engaging with policymakers and government officials is vital for effective advocacy. How does Women Deliver collaborate with governments and policymakers to influence and shape SRHR-related policies and programs?

Mathew: We do this in a few ways. One is advocating on SRHR priorities in global processes, such as with the Generation Equality Forum and the ICPD25, through our work on collective action. When it comes to technical work and normative guideline development, we work with organizations like WHO, with whom we have non-state relations status, where we relay perspectives of partners who aren’t at the table to try and influence policymaking and [the creation of] very technical documents to make sure we center gender equality and SRHR in some of these conversations.

We also are fortunate to have bilateral relationships where, behind the scenes, governments have reached out on ways we can offer formal and informal advice on things that we can influence. We also, as issues come up, team up with partners to push for advocacy priorities. For example, when Roe v. Wade happened, we teamed up with other reproductive justicefocused civil society organizations to advocate for things the US government could do in light of the US Supreme Court's declaration.

Of course, our biggest advocacy tool is the Women Deliver conferences. As you know there are 6,000 people coming this year – it's really a space where we try to bring different stakeholders together. For example, you'll have a minister of finance engaging with a young leader or a head of state engaging with grassroots advocates. We try to be that bridge builder to make sure that priorities are heard and push for stronger action and commitments.

Data and evidence are essential for effective policymaking and monitoring progress. How does Women Deliver advocate for improved data collection and monitoring of SRHR indicators and how can this contribute to evidence-based decision-making?

Mathew: Our approach to advocacy is evidence-based. We always try to either generate data ourselves or make data more accessible by taking really technical information and making it into more advocate-friendly for advocates. Of course, there are challenges with the kinds of data that are collected and made available – SRHR advocacy can be shaped by the data we have. For example, it can depend on which demographic groups data is collected on. We are also fortunate to have access to spaces like the World Economic Forum and, wherever possible, we urge partners to collect new data, especially through an intersectional lens.

Universal health coverage (UHC) aims to ensure that everyone has access to quality healthcare services without experiencing financial hardship. How does Women Deliver leverage evidence to advocate for integrating SRHR into UHC frameworks and policies?

Mathew: We are fortunate to have a coalition that focuses on this work and evidence generation and dissemination are a large part of it. One of Women Deliver’s areas of work is how we translate technical guidelines and normative frameworks developed by expert and technical institutions like WHO into things that are accessible and advocate-friendly for partners. For example, last year we produced an advocacy guide on how to advocate for safeguarding of SRHR in UHC design and implementation. We took work done by the WHO as a foundation and adapted it to a wider range of partners to use in their own advocacy on these issues. Also, when we advocate in these policymaking spaces, we always try to use evidence on what worked and what didn't work.

Looking to the future, what are Women Deliver’s research priorities in the realm of SRHR and what role does dissemination of research at conferences like Women Deliver play in galvanizing action and driving progress?

Mathew: We're really looking forward to a lot of good research being launched at the conference and it's exciting that there's a strong data and evidence track across all the conference's programming. Women Deliver is involved, for example, in a piece with the Population Council – a qualitative study in Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Uganda looking at adolescent perspectives on the climate crisis and the linkages with SRHR. We've also teamed up with the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual & Reproductive Rights on a Global Contraception Atlas, which is really a key reference for policymakers looking at how countries have performed when it comes to contraception policy.

Going forward, we would like to do more work on the linkages on climate and SRHR. I think a key problem has been intersectionality in the available data on how this impacts different population groups and seeing how we can gather more data on that. Also in terms of our work on universal health coverage, we'd like to build an evidence base of success stories on how governments have integrated SRHR into UHC policies.