This blog asserts that in order to end school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV), advocates must dismantle the culture of violence and raise girls and boys to be equal so classrooms can be safe environments for children to learn and thrive. Additionally, those working in SRGBV prevention should operate within existing legal frameworks, center survivors, and address the toxic notions of masculinity and power.

The first installment of the “IGWG Members Take the Mic” blog series, “Infertility Matters: Embracing the Gendered Spectrum of Stigma, Needs, and Experiences in Sub-Saharan Africa,” is now available! This blog shares findings and insights from a literature review—conducted by the Agency for All project—that aimed to explore myths and misperceptions, social consequences, and crosscutting factors associated with reproductive agency and infertility, as well as to identify promising, infertility-related social and behavior change and gender transformative programs from across sub-Saharan Africa and globally.

Technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), also called online violence, cyber violence, and digital violence, includes all forms of GBV committed using ICTs, including mobile phones, smartphones, the internet, social media, or other digital platforms or tools. The misuse of technology can have devastating consequences for women and girls’ safety, health, and rights when it is used to intimidate, harass, exploit, abuse, stalk, threaten and blackmail. To mitigate misuse of and capitalize on the potential that digital technology offers for accelerating universal access to SRH services, it is critical that SRH practitioners, services, and programs understand and address TFGBV.

This blog post asserts that to help women—especially young women—empower themselves to choose contraceptive options, governments, the private sector, schools, and other institutions and individuals with the ability to change women’s lives should foster environments allowing them to be active agents of their own lives. This requires changing social norms so that gender equality is a reality; guaranteeing educational and employment opportunities that help level the playing ground for women and girls; and providing access to capital for women’s small businesses, agriculture, and other opportunities.

USAID’s Integrated Health Program (IHP) focuses on strengthening maternal health while covering a range of activities, many focused on improving healthcare services, to be an effective driver in reducing maternal mortality in critical states of Nigeria. This blog focuses on IHP’s work with the Sokoto State to strengthen the healthcare system and utilize facility-level efforts as a key strategy for engaging men as beneficiaries and partners for increased access to reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health services.

This blog explores CARE’s work to address the root causes of poverty and inequality—the underlying reasons why women are unable to show up, have their voices heard, or influence the changes they need so they can secure a better future. To do this, CARE is letting women and girls’ set priorities, centering gender in all projects, integrating gender in policy and process decisions, and providing funding and resources to grassroots women-led organizations.