MenEngage Alliance commits to the FP2030 Agenda, pledging action to advance Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for all

We are proud to announce our commitment to the Family Planning 2030 (FP2030) Agenda, pledging to take a vocal and visible stance to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) globally. As an FP2030 commitment-maker, our strategic focus is to challenge patriarchal masculinities and anti-gender and anti-SRHR backlash, particularly by working with men and boys for gender equality and SRHR for all.

We root our understanding of the world in feminist principles and analysis, and an understanding that patriarchy is a system at the center of women’s, youth and LGBTQI person’s human rights violations and gender inequalities.

Working with members and partners — which include feminist, SRHR, LGBTQI, and youth movements — we will focus on addressing the systemic power inequalities that underpin gender injustice and human rights violations.

Our FP2030 Commitment outlines strategic efforts to include coalition building, narrative change campaigns, policy advocacy and knowledge building about gender transformative programs that address masculinities and SRHR. 

Together with the SRHR Working Group of MenEngage Alliance, we have outlined five specific areas where — together with members and partners — we seek to collectively support a feminist SRHR agenda:

• Supporting full bodily autonomy and the decision-making ability of women and girls, and all people who need SRHR care, by challenging notions of male, medical, institutional or political control over women’s bodies, sexuality, and reproduction. 
• Promoting shared responsibility in family planning, caregiving, and responsible health-seeking behaviors, by facilitating exchange and learning about initiatives with men and boys as active care takers, partners and change agents in SRHR.
• Strengthening accountable allyship by working with men and boys in broader coalitions with feminist partners to publicly reject and actively counter anti-gender and anti-SRHR backlash, strengthening gender transformative narratives for gender justice and SRHR for all. 
• Addressing systemic barriers to access to family planning services and supplies, SRHR information and care, and comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) by engaging in global, regional and local level advocacy to influence policies, secure access and push for legal reforms to eliminate stigma and discrimination. 
• Strengthening SRHR through engagement with men in decision making positions to uphold the agreements of the International Conference on Population and Development, and institutionalize its gender-transformative SRHR policies. We will do so via formal mechanisms to influence policymakers, political leaders, institutional heads, and traditional/​​religious authorities to effect legal reforms, and secure resources that prioritize the needs and rights of women, girls, young people and people with diverse gender identities. 

FP2030 Commitment Makers are organisations and government bodies that have ​‘pledged to take specific actions to expand access to voluntary, rights-based contraception in their community’. To learn more, visit fp2030​.org/​​c​o​m​m​i​t​m​e​n​t​ — ​m​akers.

The SRHR Working Group consists of MenEngage Alliance members from around the world with specific expertise in the intersections between men, masculinities, and feminist-informed understandings of SRHR.

As MenEngage Alliance, supporting sexual and reproductive health and rights for all is a key part of our broader commitment to supporting full gender equality for all. Click here to learn more about our work on sexual and reproductive health and rights.

- Image: Members of the Kasanje youth club in Uganda meet to discuss sex education and family planning methods. Photo Credit: Jonathan Torgovnik/​​Getty Images/​​Images of Empowerment