Now, more than ever, it is the critical moment to consider the achievements and emerging challenges of the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) agenda over the past 25 years. The southern feminist network Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) is hosting an urgent online conversation to expand and deepen the understanding of the current situation on SRHR and sexual rights debate and advocacy in times of harsh instrumentalization and politicization of women’s and LGBT+ persons’ bodies, sexuality and health rights.

In its recent advocacy brief “Body, sexuality and reproduction in a changing context”, DAWN Executive Committee member Cai Yiping, and DAWN Training Institute alumna Dana Zhang, go over a set of global challenges for SRHR and sexual rights advocacy, including the divergence and fragmentation of the SRHR paradigm; the challenge to build broader alliances; rising of right-wing and conservative forces; threats and opportunities in relation to artificial reproductive technologies (ARTs), information communication technologies (ICTs), and other technologies; and the Infiltration of international capitals and influence of corporate power, such as business of patents and the impact of pharmaceutical monopolies. Having this as a starting point, this webinar proposes a thought-provoking discussion that links these issues from respective regions and countries where our advocacy endeavor locate, with a particular focus on:

• How are these challenges unfolding at the regional and local in relation to SRHR?
• What are the connections between corporate power and conservative forces? How do they reinforce each other’s agenda?
• Where are the advocacy spaces locally and globally? What are our strategies to respond to emerging challenges? What works and what not? What are our alternatives and our resistance?

Objectives:

• To present the paper “Body, sexuality and reproduction in a changing context” and discuss selected key findings with a focus on corporate power impact in SRHR.
• To provide a space to discuss emerging challenges to advance SRHR in global South, considering local realities and real issues.
• To provide a space for deepening the understanding and thinking around new advocacy strategies to advance the SRHR feminist agenda globally.

Date and time of the webinar:

June 18^th – 12.00-13.30 GMT (Perú and Ecuador: 6:00-7.30 am / Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay: 9.00-10.30 am / Beijing: 8.00-9.30 PM)

Speakers:

• Dandan Zhang (China, DAWN): presentation of the summary of the paper
• Florencia Partenio (Argentina, DAWN): instrumentalization and cooptation of SRHR by the private sector (pink-washing)
• Cai Yiping (China, DAWN): Asian perspective on corporate capture in SRHR

Discussants from other regions:

• Francoise Kpeglo Moudouthe (Cameroon, FEMNET)
• Sachini Perera (Sri Lanka, RESURJ)

Facilitator: María Graciela Cuervo (Dominican Republic, DAWN)

To participate in this webinar, please register.