Nomination recognizes Kumar’s work with Ipas to show that reproductive justice is essential for gender-equal societies
Ipas President & CEO Dr. Anu Kumar, a lifelong champion for women’s rights and reproductive justice, has been selected as a finalist for the WIN WIN Gothenburg Sustainability Award.
The WIN WIN Award celebrates changemakers who inspire others and lead the way toward a sustainable future. Previous winners include Al Gore and Kofi Annan. This year’s award theme is “gender-equal societies,” and received a record 1,224 nominations from 136 countries.
After a thorough jury evaluation, 10 finalists have been announced today for the WIN WIN Award and WIN WIN Youth Award (for nominees ages 13-29). Kumar is the first-ever finalist selected for work on reproductive rights and justice. Other finalists selected include Pakistani female education activist Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Prize winner in history.
“The WIN WIN Award jury nominates Anu Kumar for her principled and strategic leadership, demonstrating how reproductive rights can be translated into concrete systems and processes,” the announcement states. “Her work shows how bodily autonomy and reproductive justice are essential for gender-equal societies and long-term social stability.”
WIN WIN Award winners will be announced later in 2026.
A lifetime devoted to reproductive justice
In her 24 years of leadership at Ipas, and now, in her ninth year as Ipas’s president and CEO, Kumar has been a relentless champion for the simple but revolutionary idea that abortion rights are human rights—and are necessary to realize gender equality.
“At a time when reproductive rights, human rights, and democracy itself is under attack, the WIN WIN Award’s recognition of my work to advance reproductive justice is a light of hope during a dark time,” Kumar says. “I have dedicated my life to the cause of reproductive justice because the ability to control one’s body and reproductive life is critical for women to have power—economic power, social power, political power. It is critical to achieving gender equality and more just societies. I’m deeply honored to be among the changemakers working toward such a future.”
Connecting abortion to gender equality
Ipas’s mission has always been to expand abortion access for all. And Kumar has always challenged the fields of international development and global health to think boldly about abortion. She highlights all that abortion access brings: bodily autonomy, decision-making power, a pathway out of poverty, continued education, the ability to life up to one’s fullest potential—and proven benefits to individuals, communities and even countries.
Earlier in her tenure at Ipas, Kumar pioneered the field of abortion stigma, co-authoring a groundbreaking article that launched a robust field of research and activism. She has also worked with colleagues to create the sustainable abortion ecosystem model, which is rooted in human rights and recognizes the factors that impact a person’s ability to access abortion. This multifaceted approach to address the barriers that undermine sexual and reproductive health forms the foundation of Ipas’s work to advance women’s and girls’ rights, agency and reproductive autonomy.