SRHM Podcast Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters (SRHM)

In our latest podcast episode, Associated Editor of SRHM, Nina Sun, speaks to two colleagues from the United Nations Population Fund - Petar Mladenov, a Programme Analyst for youth-led advocacy, comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), and Ilya Zhukov, a Technical Specialist and global CSE focal point. 

Young people living with HIV, young people selling sex, and young people from marginalised backgrounds are often left behind from CSE interventions and there is a pressing need to tailor CSE programs in order to include them, and improve their sexual wellbeing.


In this episode, listen to the panelists engage in an enlightening discussion on how to improve CSE program integrity, quality, and fidelity for left-behind populations and how their work with local partners and research institutions are helping to address research gaps for the success of these programs in different countries. They also discuss how they measure and evaluate facilitators that enhance inclusive CSE programs, and efforts to improve the facilitators' performance in different contexts.


Useful links from the SRHM journal issue:



SRHM issue - Beyond the classroon: Comprehensive sexuality education for outside of school settings



Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) programming adaptations in response to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic



The International Technical and Programmatic Guidance on Out-of-School
Comprehensive Sexuality Education – an evidence-informed approach for
non-formal, out-of-school programmes reaching young people from left-behind populations

This episode was co-organised by SRHM and the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health, and moderated by the Institute's director and SRHM Trustee, Sofia Gruskin. With an introduction by Nina Sun, Associated Editor of the SRHM Journal, we hear from key actors, including Anne Philpott - Founder of the Pleasure Project, Eszter Kismödi - Chief Executive of SRHM, Kat Lowe - Content Moderation Lead for Medan, a global not-for-profit organisation, and Leeza Mangaldas - India's foremost pleasure-positive content creator, on how information, misinformation, and disinformation in the current digital age impacts sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), with a particular focus on sexuality education, contraception, and abortion.

Listen to the panelists engage in a rich discussion on effective strategies to counter the challenges surrounding SRHR in the digital age, to ensure that the transformative potential of technology reaches those who need it most, and support agency, bodily autonomy, and decision making for all individuals.



Useful links:



SRHM journal issue 'Digital technology and sexual and reproductive health and rights'



Watch the video recording of this webinar



USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health

In this episode, Nina Sun, Associated Editor for the SRHM Journal speaks to Sundari Ravindran, Senior Editor of the SRHM Journal, about a recently published issue titled, 'Donor Funding for SRHR Advocacy'.

Sundari speaks to the rationale and gap in knowledge that this issue addressess and why it was important for SRHM to publish on this topic. She also talks about specific findings that stood out to her personally. Lastly she discusses the next steps now that we have gathered this evidence in the SRHM Journal.



Useful links:

SRHM Issue: Donor funding for SRHR advocacy

Perspective: Is there an alternative to grant-funding for sexual and reproductive health advocacy? A survey of the income base of AmplifyChange grantees Alex le May & Lucie Hazelgrove-Planel

Commentary: “Effective social justice advocacy: a theory of change framework for assessing progress” – reflections on the terrain since its publication in 2011 Barbara Klugman

Commentary: Forgotten by donors: a call to action by persons with disabilities to resource disability justice within sexual and reproductive health rights funding Lisa Adams

Commentary: Advocacy for resourcing feminist and women’s rights movements: an interview with the association for women’s rights in development (AWID) Cindy Clark, Kasia Staszewska, Tenzin Dolker & T.K. Sundari Ravindran

In this 10 minute editor's summary episode we hear from Nina Sun, SRHM Associate Editor, and Emma Pitchforth, SRHM Editor-in-Chief. Emma gives an overview of the 2023 Open Issue, the range of topics and gives a summary of three papers that stood out to her personally. Nina and Emma also discuss what themes will be important for the SRHM journal to publish in 2024 and what makes the SRHM Open issue different to other journal publications.



Useful links:

2023 Open Issue

Research article: The difficult process of autonomous choice: using I-poems to understand experiences of abortion-seekers in The Netherlands

Lianne Holten, Rosalie van der Wolf & Marit S. G. van der Pijl

Commentary: Supreme Court of India judgement on abortion as a fundamental right: breaking new ground

Dipika Jain

Review: A reanalysis of the Institute for Research and Evaluation report that challenges non-US, school-based comprehensive sexuality education evidence base

Kelly Van Treeck, Shatha Elnakib & Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli

Submit a paper to the 2024 Open Issue

Open Issue FAQ

Sign up to the SRHM Newsletter

In anticipation of the International Conference on Family Planning, this episode focuses on reproductive power and aligning actions with values in global family planning.

The conversation is moderated by Sara Gullo who works as an Independent Consultant. Sara is joined by Christine Galavotti a Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Feven Mekuria a Senior Advisor in Community Health systems at CARE.

This conversation is inspired by a recent article on reproductive power and family planning written by Christine and Sara which was published in the SRHM journal. The link to the article is available in the episode description or you can find it at SRHM.org.



Useful links:

Reproductive power matters: aligning actions with values in global family planning written by Christine Galavotti & Sara Gullo: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/26410397.2022.2082353

Jade Sasser’s book titled On Infertile Ground: https://nyupress.org/9781479899357/on-infertile-ground/

Reproductive Autonomy Scale: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24615573/

Contraceptive Autonomy: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24615573/

Op-Ed on contraception as ‘poverty cure’: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/opinion/iud-implants-contraception-poverty.html--

Summary of the project with married girls from Ethiopia: a4_tesfainvestigativeresearchbrief_print.pdf (care.org)

In this episode, four experts discuss the importance of pleasure for health and wellbeing and how it connects to family planning and contraception. They also discuss the pleasure deficit, why it exists and what we can do about it.

This episode is moderated by Anne Philpott who is the Founder and Co-Director of The Pleasure Project - an international education and advocacy organization working to eroticize safer sex. Anne is speaking with Ana Santos, an award-winning journalist who reports on the intersections of sexuality, sexual health, and female migrant labour. She is also a Pleasure Fellow at The Pleasure Project. Anne is also speaking with Mahmoud Garga, Lead Specialist in Strategic Communication, Media Relations and Digital Campaigning at the IPPF Africa Regional Office. He also leads their Treasure You Pleasure campaign across Sub-Saharan Africa. And lastly, Jessica Sanders is also joining the conversion. Jessica is an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah in the Division of Family Planning and Director of research at the ASCENT Center for reproductive and sexual health. She received her PhD in Public Health from the University of Utah with an emphasis in Women’s Health.

Useful links:

The Pleasure Project

The Pleasure Principles – guide to implementing pleasure based sexual health

The Systematic Review on 'What is the added value of incorporating pleasure in sexual health interventions?'

· Explanatory note

· Journal article

The World Association of Sexual Health Sexual Pleasure Declaration

The World Association for Sexual Health’s Declaration on Sexual Pleasure: A technical guide

World Sexual Health Day – Let’s talk Pleasure - 2022

Treasure your pleasure campaign

The campaign, in English, French and Portuguese aims to create a safe space for youth in Africa to talk about sex freely, reducing shame through bold communication that resonates with them and grabs their attention while also advocating for safe sex and the importance of pleasure.

Middle Me Podcast with Ana Santos

By Jessica Sanders:

Sex, poverty, and public health: Connections between sexual wellbeing and economic resources among US reproductive health clients

Measuring the Sexual Acceptability of Contraception: Psychometric Examination and Development of a Valid and Reliable Prospective Instrument