Media center

Suva, Fiji, 7 March 2025: “Advancing the Sexuality Agenda and Shifting Norms in the Pacific”, a new programme to promote Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice (SRHRJ), challenge harmful norms, and empower Pacific communities has been launched. This programme is implemented as part of the Niu Vaka Strategy Phase II (2023-2028) by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)’s Sub-Regional Office for the Pacific (SROP) and 10 Pacific Member Associations. The programme is supported by the Pacific Women Lead Governance Board, facilitated via the Pacific Women Lead at the Pacific Community (PWL at SPC) programme as Secretariat to the board. Pacific Women Lead is Australia’s flagship regional gender equality investment for the Pacific, with the Governance Board driving the strategy and high-level decision making for the Pacific regional gender equality portfolio, championing the advancement of women across the region.  In the Pacific, cultural norms and gender inequality continue to be barriers to accessing safe, affordable and critical sexual and reproductive health care, information and/or education. This programme intends to implement strategic, evidence-based interventions to promote change. Key activities include: Researching Cultural Barriers: Identifying and addressing key obstacles to SRHR in Pacific communities.   Strengthening Gender-Transformative Programming: Enhancing policies and programmes that challenge harmful gender norms in nine (9) Pacific Island countries.   Developing a Pacific Youth SRHR Strategy: Ensuring that young people, particularly young women and girls, have access to rights-based sexual and reproductive health care.  This project aims to improve gender equality, uphold women’s rights, and equip youths with fair access to resources and tools by emphasizing community-led outcomes and encouraging cross-sector collaboration to build a healthier and more inclusive and gender-equal Pacific community.  Dolores Devesi, IPPF’s Pacific Member Associations (MA) Support and Development Director, emphasized the significance of this programme, stating that this project presents an important opportunity to address the lack of access to SRHR, strengthening internal protocols and empowering young people.  “The project has come at the right time especially when we are seeing a global decline in investment towards sexual and reproductive health, while in the Pacific, HIV & STIs are on the rise at alarming rates, teenage pregnancies and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) continue to soar. We are grateful for the opportunity this brings as we work towards a better understanding and analysis of the barriers related to SRHR, the operationalization of internal SGBV protocols within our Member Associations and a platform for young people to lead groundbreaking work on SRHR in the region”. The official launch marks the beginning of a journey towards a more inclusive and equitable Pacific region, committed to SRHRJ for all. For more information and media enquiries, contact: Maxine Tuwila Communications, Voice & Media Officer Sub-Regional Office for the Pacific [email protected] About IPPF in the Pacific IPPF is a global healthcare provider and a leading advocate of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for all. Led by a courageous and determined group of women, IPPF was founded in 1952 at the Third International Planned Parenthood Conference. Today, we are a movement of 158 Member Associations and Collaborative Partners with a presence in over 153 countries. IPPF East and South East Asia and Oceania Region (IPPF ESEAOR) is one of IPPF’s six regional offices and includes the Sub-Regional Office for the Pacific (SROP). SROP supports member associations and collaborative partners in 10 Pacific countries: Cook Islands Family Welfare Association (CIFWA), Kiribati Family Health Association (KFHA), Papua New Guinea Family Health Association (PNGFHA), Reproductive and Family Health Association of Fiji (RFHAF), Samoa Family Health Association (SFHA), Solomon Islands Planned Parenthood Association (SIPPA), Tonga Family Health Association (TFHA), Tuvalu Family Health Association (TuFHA), Vanuatu Family Health Association (VFHA) and Youth to Youth in Health (YTYiH) in the Republic of Marshall Islands.

We make this statement at the first-ever gathering of LGBTQI+ and SOGIESC-diverse communities in Asia since the Trump administration’s return to power. Our very presence here is a declaration of resistance and history in the making. We stand bold, united, and unshaken: we will fight the US administration and their allies in their war against rights, gender justice, diversity, inclusion, equality, and freedom. Within days of Donald Trump’s return to power in January 2025, his administration launched an all-out war on human rights, dignity, and justice. In a calculated attack on the most marginalized communities, the US administration reinstated the Global Gag Rule, cutting off critical funding for reproductive health and rights worldwide. He issued sweeping Executive Orders erasing protections for LGBTQI+ people, banning transgender athletes, criminalizing gender-affirming care, and silencing movements for equality. The U.S. government froze nearly all foreign assistance, forcing life-saving programs for LGBTQI+ people, women, people living with HIV and marginalized groups to shut down overnight. By February 7, organizations began receiving termination notices, severing their ability to serve communities most at risk. This is not just an attack on LGBTQI+ rights, it is an assault on gender justice, reproductive justice, racial justice and our collective freedoms. We are witnessing a coordinated effort between the US administration and the world’s most powerful tech corporations to erase history, silence dissent, and suppress movements for justice. The removal of Black History Month, Women’s History Month, and even the branding of Pride and reproductive rights products is a chilling warning: they are trying to erase us. Social media power players like Google, Facebook, and X are conspiring with authoritarian forces to control the narrative and dismantle decades of hard-fought progress. But we refuse to be erased. We refuse to be silenced. The insistence that gender-affirming care is not real healthcare is a direct attack on evidence-based, life-saving medicine. The bans on gender-affirming care for minors and trans athletes are not just policies — they are part of a broader, dangerous ideology that seeks to strip us of our dignity and autonomy. This is not just about LGBTQI+ people. This is about the right of every person to exist freely, without fear of state-sponsored violence and repression.