Ipas Collaborative Fund
A locally led, globally connected grantmaking program to foster a collective movement for reproductive justice
The Ipas Collaborative Fund builds on 20 years of Ipas grantmaking and nearly 50 years of technical assistance and experience working to expand abortion access. The fund is rooted in and administered by local Ipas teams in the countries where we work in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Currently, the Ipas Collaborative Fund grantmaking is administered by our Africa Alliance team, based in Kenya and will continue to grow as we learn from our grantees about how best to meet their goals toward reproductive justice.
We recognize there are many important actors seeking to advance abortion rights and access—feminist and youth groups, women’s funds, local community-based organizations, and other key players. Our goal is to partner with them to foster a collective movement for social change focused on reproductive justice, including abortion rights. The Ipas Collaborative Fund combines grants with technical support, and channels flexible resources where they are needed most–to organizations closest to the important work being done.
We are working toward creating a network of locally led community organizations and stakeholders that are active, accountable and committed to abortion rights. Grantees are our partners for reproductive justice,” says Gonzaga Ogambi, Ipas Africa Alliance community access advisor.
Current grantees:
Pastoralist Community Initiative and Development Assistance (PACIDA)
PACIDA is a local NGO working regionally in Ethiopia to improve the well-being of vulnerable arid and semi-arid lands communities through sustainable development.
Their work: PACIDA is implementing capacity-building projects in Samburu on climate adaptation strategies, including natural resource management and smart agriculture. These programs are aimed at enabling and empowering women and youth to participate in environmental activism while addressing the impact of climate change on their sexual and reproductive health rights.
Entashata Loita CBO
Entashata Loita Community Based Organization (CBO) serves the Maasai pastoralist community in the arid and semi-arid lands of Loita Division in Kenya, sharing climate adaptation strategies and advocating for women and girls’ rights to education and abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
Their work: As the first CBO to reach communities in Loita Division for interventions, they have linked over 50 girls for education sponsorship and their dialogues on FGM have caused more and more families in these communities to abandon the practice. They have reduced destruction of a critical water resource in the Naibala community and partnered with local women’s groups to initiate modern beehives, boosting the women’s livelihoods.
Their work: AHM’s self-made Male Champion model has been adopted by Malawi’s Government in the fight against gender-based violence. Having already successfully pushed for adoption of guidelines for youth empowerment in governance structures and establishment of on child marriages by-laws in the Zomba district, AHM is working tirelessly to lobby the Malawi government to grant access to safe abortion services and postabortion care.
Having long provided nursing staff specialized in reproductive health and family planning to the community, this local nonprofit has begun the implementation of a Comprehensive Sexuality Education project with the technical and financial support of Ipas Central America and Mexico.
Their work: The process began with the training of facilitators who will supervise events in the youth clubs of PROFAMILA clinics, providing information about healthy and safe sexuality with respect to their rights and without guilt—dispelling stigma and empowering decisionmaking. In addition, a digital campaign has been launched through PROFAMILIA’s social networks to help adolescents make informed, assertive, and autonomous decisions about sexuality and reproductive health.
Nucleus of Women’s Associations of Zambézia (NAFEZA)
NAFEZA is a network of 33 feminist organizations. Located in the Located in the Zambézia province of Mozambique, they work to strengthen the solidarity of women’s associations and community-based organizations while coordinating advocacy actions that raise the status of women and girls.
NAFEZA has joined Ipas to advocate in partnership with the health sector to educate and facilitate access, so that girls and young women can make more informed choices about contraception and receive safe, stigma-free abortion services if needed.
SAIF Advocacy Foundation is a registered non-governmental organization working to promote the sexual reproductive health & rights of women and girls in Gombe State, Nigeria.
Their work: They are supporting regional Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to integrate postabortion care (PAC) services in their programming. To date, fifteen CSOs have been identified and had Values Clarification and Attitude Transformation (VCAT) conducted to change their attitudes and perspective towards abortion.
Onelife Initiative for Human Development
This non-governmental, not-for-profit organization works in Nigeria towards the social development of young people. They use multi-sectoral interventions with a youth-based focus in the areas of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), Governance and Policies and Enterprise Development (with heavy agribusiness tilt).
Their work: Currently, they are conducting a baseline survey in two States in Nigeria (Akwa Ibom & Oyo States), targeting out-of-campus students in order to inform curriculum development of sessions with students regarding their preference of Private Patent Medicine Vendors (PPMVs).
DEAP is registered civil society organization working in Punjab and Sindh providing services in education, health, disability, livelihood and water/sanitation sectors. DEAP also provides free food items, free educational assistance and financial support to those in need.
DEAP collaborates with Ipas Pakistan to inform the community about abortion with pills, postabortion care and contraception through training of Lady Health Workers and coordinates logistics for training of providers and community sessions with women and girls to orient them to Pakistan abortion law, safe pathways of Uterine Evacuation/Post-abortion (UE/PAC) and comprehensive contraceptive care (CC).
The Zambian Youth Platform (ZYP)
ZYP is a network of adolescents and young people, youth leaders/workers and their organizations, committed to the emancipation of young people in Zambia.
They are currently implementing the Youth Community Advocacy Project (Y-CAP), which aims to improve the quality of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services and increase access to comprehensive abortion care (CAC) for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in Chipata and Livingstone districts. This project addresses systemic inequalities and obstacles to CAC access, aiming for systemic improvements that will benefit all AGYW in Zambia.
