Africa Alliance

© Ipas
Home 9 Where We Work 9 Africa 9 Africa Alliance

In Kenya, unsafe abortion has long been recognized as a leading cause of death and injury for women. Under the new Kenyan constitution, abortion is legal under certain circumstances, but many providers have still not been trained in safe abortion care, and women continue to seek unsafe procedures and suffer complications. In neighboring Uganda, abortion-related causes account for 26 percent of maternal deaths, and most women who have abortions undergo unsafe procedures.

Ipas Africa Alliance for Women’s Reproductive Health and Rights works in Kenya and Uganda—and with regional East Africa partners—to reduce deaths from unsafe abortion, to expand the availability of safe abortion care, and to improve the legal and policy environment for safe abortion across the continent. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, Ipas Africa Alliance has programs to train safe abortion providers, support health clinics that offer abortion services, and develop youth champions for sexual and reproductive rights. In Uganda, programs also support comprehensive sexuality education that includes safe abortion, and Ipas Africa Alliance has worked with Uganda’s Ministry of Health Reproductive Division and a team of other partners to develop national standards and guidelines for reducing death and injury from unsafe abortion.

Leadership: Dr. Angela Akol

Office: Nairobi

Ready for the next 50 years

Dr. Angela Akol

Ipas’s work in East Africa breaks barriers and makes way for partners to follow, and that makes me immensely proud. The next 50 years will bring less restrictive laws and policies for abortion care, as well as incredible revolutions in health-care technology. Ipas will be an impactful leader in developing new technologies that expand access to quality sexual and reproductive health services, including abortion.

Dr. Angela Akol

Director, Ipas Africa Alliance

Impact in 2022

people received abortion at Ipas-supported facilities

people received contraceptive services at Ipas-supported facilities

counties received support from the Ministry of Health and Ipas to institutionalize standards and guidelines for postabortion care (treatment of complications from unsafe abortion)

How Africa can gain from International Conference on Family Planning

“The global push for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) has been around for at least seven decades. Africa still lags behind the rest of the world, however. There is a need to intensify the pace of awareness and uptake of the benefits of SRHR education.”
Dr. Angela Akol, Director of Ipas Africa Alliance.

Dr. Angela Akol

Ipas Africa Alliance organizes caravan to advocate for an end to SGBV

The Power of Local: How Ipas’s grantmaking to community-based groups is expanding abortion access

This webinar features three community-based organizations—in Argentina, Uganda and Indonesia—that have partnered with Ipas to make change. Speakers share their organizations’ unique approaches to expanding abortion access, the impact they’ve seen locally, and the challenges they face. 

Ipas and regional partners look at ways to advance abortion laws and policies

A regional exchange learning webinar hosted by the Africa Coalition for Safe Abortion brought together sexual and reproductive rights champions from Kenya, Rwanda, Mozambique and Ethiopia.

Partnering to save lives

Ipas Africa Alliance has partnered with Bomulusi, a community-based organization in Kenya, on an abortion stigma-reduction project. Below, Ipas Africa Alliance Accessibility Manager Julius Gwadah shares how the two organizations worked together to help a teenaged girl.

In Kakamega County, Kenya, a teenaged girl tried to terminate a pregnancy with herbs. She hid in a sugar cane field and developed sepsis. She was afraid to leave, fearing stigma and rejection from her community because she’d had an abortion. Three days passed, and the girl was near death. A community health volunteer for Bomulusi was coming home from the market when she spotted the girl in the field. The girl shared that she’d tried to terminate her pregnancy with herbs because she was afraid of being punished by her parents, discriminated against by her community, and being forced to drop out of school. The volunteer rushed the girl to an Ipas-supported health facility, where she received postabortion care. The girl recovered and was able to return to school. She also joined Bomulusi as a youth champion and psychosocial support group member for stigma reduction, so that others wouldn’t have to go through what she went through. This is how a partnership between Ipas and Bomulusi saved the life of a girl. ”

– JULIUS GWADAH, Ipas Africa Alliance Accessibility Manager

Health

A mobile health referrals system in Kenya was designed to link women and girls with reproductive health care.

Moraa Beryl

‘I grew up in a community where the education of girls is not a priority, seeing very brilliant girls’ dreams shattered because they had to drop out of school from pregnancy or lack of fees.’

Moraa Beryl, champion of youth reproductive rights in Kenya

About Us

We work with partners around the world to advance reproductive justice by expanding access to abortion and contraception.

Ipas Sustainable Abortion Care

Our Work

The global movement for legal, accessible abortion is growing. Our staff and partners in countries as diverse as Bolivia, Malawi and India are working to ensure all people can access high-quality abortion care.

Where We Work

The global movement for legal, accessible abortion is growing. Our staff and partners in countries as diverse as Bolivia, Malawi and India are working to ensure all people can access high-quality abortion care.

Resources

Our materials are designed to help reproductive health advocates and professionals expand access to high-quality abortion care.

For health professionals

For advocates and decisionmakers

Training
resources

For humanitarian settings

Abortion VCAT resources

For researchers and program implementors