We launched a new Advocate’s Guide: Safe Abortion Research and Evidence Generation last month as we marked the International Safe Abortion Day 2026. It is developed by the Safe Abortion Advocacy Initiative – A Global South Engagement (SAIGE), in collaboration with its partners and members.
The Guide is a practical and empowering tool for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) advocates, researchers, community-based organisations, students and movements seeking to generate and use evidence to advance reproductive justice and access to safe abortion.
The Advocate’s Guide brings together two interconnected areas of practice:
- Research and Evidence Generation: supporting advocates to identify data gaps, formulate research questions, select appropriate research approaches, collect and analyse data, and undertake research ethically and safely.
- From Research to Advocacy – supporting advocates to translate evidence into advocacy strategies, messages and tools, identify appropriate advocacy entry points, define goals and evaluate advocacy impact.
SAIGE members from Fem Alliance Uganda, Vision in Action Cameroon, Affasa Bangladesh, Tamtang Foundation Thailand, Youth Led SRHR Advocacy Nepal (YoSHAN), Diverse Empowerment Foundation (DEF) and Pamela Martín García representing Argentine activists pilot tested the Guide and had the opportunity to apply it in their own community research and advocacy work to advance safe abortion while giving practical and constructive feedback to finalise the Guide.
At the Global Launch held on the 25 September 2026, the participants were introduced to the Advocate’s Guide and its content, highlighting the practical applications to the global safe abortion movement.
The pilot testers shared their experiences in using it, and demonstrated how research and evidence-based advocacy was advanced in relation to their own communities ranging from indigenous persons in Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh, female sex workers, internally displaced persons, and young women in Limbe and Buea provinces in Cameroon, trans and gender diverse persons and persons with disabilities in Uganda, abortion health service providers in Nepal met with sex-selective abortion, telemedicine abortion service users and providers at Tantawan Medical Clinic Thailand, and abortion activists in the context of a far-right government in Argentina.
With the launch, SAIGE encourages wider uptake and adaptation of the Guide by advocates, community-based organisations, researchers and movements across the Global South, and strengthened connections and knowledge exchange around research, evidence generation and advocacy for safe abortion.