IDEA Initiative
We are Planned Parenthood Global’s social innovation lab for reproductive rights in Latin America.
The IDEA Initiative is designed to motivate the entrepreneur, technology, communications and social impact investment ecosystems to explore creativity, innovation and talent to transform ideas into solutions for the most stubborn and entrenched issues in health and reproductive rights in Latin America.
Our challenge
Every person has the fundamental human right to decide whether or not to have children, when and with whom, which includes having the information and the means to exercise that right without being discriminated against in any way. Allowing people to freely exercise their reproductive rights has a huge positive impact for themselves, their families and their countries. For example:
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People achieve higher levels of education, stay in school longer and have better outcomes.
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They have greater access to stable, better-paid, productive employment.
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Lowering the risk of suffering from or causing gender violence.
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improved food security and nutrition, as well as reduced maternal and infant illnesses and deaths.
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People are able to form stable relationships when it is right for them. People have greater purchasing power, and are able to break the cycle of poverty and social exclusion.
Despite this undeniable positive impact, the exercise of reproductive rights in Latin America faces barriers in key areas:
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Expansion of comprehensive sexuality education
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Availability of modern and effective contraceptives
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Access to legal and safe abortion
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Restrictive laws and public policies
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Insufficient or inefficiently allocated public budgets
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Social norms that perpetuate prejudices against the exercise of reproductive rights
Improving this reality and achieving a positive impact for Latin America’s development is possible, if we can overcome the constant barriers that limit one's ability to exercise their reproductive rights.
Theory of Change
Organizations working in the reproductive health and rights field face an urgent need to innovate in a world that is increasingly changing, where traditional donors have drastically reduced their support, new ecosystems to address social problems have been developed, and collaboration between people and multidisciplinary teams that involve creativity and different experiences is increasingly necessary.
The IDEA Initiative aims to build synergies from and among these ecosystems and connect them to co-create innovative solutions to meet challenges in sexual and reproductive health in Latin America
What do we do?
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We work with people, organizations and companies who are passionate about finding creative and disruptive solutions to the barriers to access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services, advocating for the change of restrictive laws that hinder the exercise of their reproductive rights, and transforming social norms that perpetuate the prejudices on reproductive rights.
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We invest in disruptive ideas resulting from the intersection between technology, advertising, communication and social impact entrepreneurship with reproductive rights.
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We help non-profit organizations to transform themselves into social impact ventures.
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We support the creation of new social impact ventures through intensive training, professional coaching and seed capital.
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We motivate a social innovation ecosystem consisting of leaders in the advertising, technology, social media, social entrepreneurship, social impact investment funds, activists and non-profit sectors.