On April 23, the Bolivian Senate approved a bill to eliminate legal exceptions that previously allowed marriage from the age of 16 with parental or judicial authorization. This milestone represents a historic victory for the protection of girls and adolescents against child marriage.
This brief highlights how international, more open, gender-inclusive trade can boost women’s role in the economy, can reduce gender quality gaps, and can expand women’s empower, health and education—and how trade, women’s empowerment and sexual and reproductive health and rights are mutually reinforcing.
In March 2025, a broad spectrum of key stakeholders gathered in Mogadishu, Somalia, to discuss how to build a sustainable ecosystem for maternal and reproductive health care. A strategic roadmap emerged from the multi-day event, along with a shared commitment by stakeholders to implement the plan and transform the country’s maternal and reproductive health landscape.
A recently released national report details a study highlighting gaps in Kenya’s sexual and reproductive health services—and gives compelling evidence that expanding access to modern and effective family planning and contraception is crucial to preventing unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortion methods.
Adolescents in Kenya stand at a critical crossroads, facing what has been aptly termed the “triple threat”: new HIV infections, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), and teenage pregnancies.
Conducted by Ipas in partnership with the University of California, Berkeley, and the Association for Prevention of Septic Abortion, Bangladesh (BAPSA), this study protocol introduces a new method for more accurately measuring maternal deaths caused by abortion complications among forcibly displaced populations living in refugee camps.
In May 2025, the African Christian Professionals Forum (ACPF) will host its second Pan-African Conference on Family Values in Nairobi, Kenya. The conference and its areas of focus are crucial to understanding the strategy and next likely targets of this anti-rights movement.
Period poverty remains a pressing challenge in Kenya, disproportionately affecting teenage girls in rural areas. Life Lifters Kenya, an Ipas Collaborative grantee, is tackling this issue head-on.