In advocacy work for the right to safe abortion, movement building and strong national coalitions are central to ensuring coherence in promoting common goals and agreed messages across sectors. Movement building was a central theme at the Campaign’s International Forum –Developing an Advocacy Agenda for Abortion in the 21stCentury and Making Change Happen, 5-7 September 2018. At the end of the meeting, we proposed to provide small grants to a number of Campaign member groups to initiate national coalitions in their countries. In early 2019, we received applications from and provided grants to support national coalition-building meetings in Ecuador, Gabon, The Gambia, Madagascar and Peru. All these meetings shared the overall aim of discussing common strategies and developing opportunities for movement building.
A summary of the Gabon coalition meeting is below. The full meeting report is availablehere.
The Reseau d’Afrique Centrale pour la Sante Reproductive des Femmes (Middle Africa Network for Women’s Reproductive Health: Gabon, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea (GCG))organized this meeting on 20 March 2019 in Libreville. There were two panels: Process and practice, and Experiences and ethics. The aim was to create a space for a deeper reflection on the realities of abortion in Gabon. The 62 meeting participants included academic researchers, teachers, midwives, and governmental and non-governmental organization representatives. The participants proposed holding an international symposium on the realities of abortions in Gabon; an annual meeting of all participants and others to work more closely together; research on complications and consequences of clandestine abortion; and education, information and awareness campaigns on sexuality and contraception for adolescents and their parents care.