In November, a three day Nairobi Summit in Kenya marked the 25th anniversary of countries’ commitment to the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). It mobilized more than 1,200 public and private commitments for women’s health.
Rising Flame’s founder and executive director, Nidhi Goyal, was part of the Pre-ICPD 25 Consultative Forum on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights of Women with disabilities – Linking Community Voices to Global Spaces. This was a one day forum to deliberate the sexual and reproductive health rights of women with disabilities, including the status of universal health coverage and explore opportunities to advance their human rights organised by This-Ability Trust and Sexual Reproductive Health Matters, in partnership with United Nations Population Fund and the Canadian High Commission. Participants for this forum included disability rights organizations, community organizations, national governmental bodies, international and regional disability organizations, women’s rights organizations, academic Institutions, UN agencies and other development partners.
Nidhi facilitated the panel on Gender Based Violence and Harmful Practices. Some of the other panelists were Wanjiku Munyinyi from Coalition on Violence Against Women and Mirriam Nthenge from Centre for Reproductive Rights. Towards the end of the summit, Nidhi also spoke about the Way Forward, Next Steps and Collective Action. The objectives of the discussions were to highlight the various forms of discrimination faced by women and girls with disabilities in access to SRHR,strengthen and contribute to joint advocacy on SRHR and make recommendations on priority areas for ICPD+25 on the SRHR of women and girls with disabilities.