Backing the Brave

Backing the Brave: Planned Parenthood’s commitment to supporting the global movement for reproductive freedom 

July 2021 marks the 50th anniversary of Planned Parenthood Global. For five decades, we have partnered with and invested in brave individuals and movements taking risks and pushing boundaries to advance sexual and reproductive health around the world. 

Today, we are reaffirming our core values and taking steps to enhance our global impact. As part of the UN Women’s Generation Equality Forum and its Action Coalition on bodily autonomy and SRHR, we make the following formal commitment to partners, fellow advocates, and our own staff as we embark on the next era.   

In our 50 years, Planned Parenthood Global has had the greatest impact when we have invested in brave actors and supported them to be even braver while working at the leading edge of the SRHR movement. We commit to growing the locally led, globally connected SRHR movement by being unflinching supporters for safe abortion and providing flexible partner support designed to fuel local leadership and innovation. We commit to centering young people and bringing new voices to the movement. 

Over the next five years, we will:

• Strengthen and connect SRHR movements in 8+ countries in Africa and Latin America through grants, technical assistance and trust-based partnerships;

• Support brave advocates to push for liberalized abortion in at least 6 countries;

• Create new, and amplify existing, pathways to abortion and SRH care in 5 countries;

• Launch at least one new national SRHR provider network;

• Expand Billi Now Now!, our youth engagement initiative, in West Africa and connect it with youth efforts globally.

Planned Parenthood Global is also committed to substantively tackling structural racism, colorism and neocolonialism within our own team, and in how we work in local communities. 

Over the next five years, we will:

• Continue building intersectional, anti-racism education and action into our work in order to strengthen our team and improve our programs in the communities we serve. 

• Review and update our internal hiring practices to ensure we hire staff in leadership roles that reflect the multiracial and multiethnic communities with whom we work. 

• Assess practices to retain and promote racially and ethnically diverse staff. 

• Position and amplify the voices of our incredible and diverse staff members in high profile spaces. 

• Develop resources and a curriculum that address the unique considerations around equity and inclusion in the countries where we work, the legacy and ongoing impact of colonialism in the development sector, and the way discussions around race in the U.S. impact our global team.