ICFP Shifting Power and Advancing Equity in Global Health Subcommittee
This community is dedicated to shifting power and accelerating efforts to advance equity in global health.
FAQ
What Do You Do?
The ICFP Power Shifting community aims to call attention to the inequities existing in SRHR research, program implementation, and policy advocacy as well as hold space for important conversations on shifting power and accelerating equity in reproductive health.
Who is Involved?
The ICFP Power Shifting community looks to engage professionals committed to learning, understanding, and shifting power in SRHR. The community has forged a partnership with the World Health Organization’s IBP Network to create the Power Shifting in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) Community of Practice.
Contact
For more information about the ICFP 2025 Power Shifting Subcommittee, please contact the ICFP Secretariat at info@theicfp.org.
About This Subcommittee
You can help shift power and accelerate efforts to advance equity in global health.
Colonialism and its legacy are part of our shared human history. The social structures, funding models, and knowledge generation practices that define global health are rooted in a history of inequality, exploitation, and racism. For the community that focuses on populations, this is also a history of coercion, population control, and eugenics. This history may not be un-done and prior calls to challenge this legacy, have fallen short. There is a growing awareness and pressure to address this as the world moves to ‘de-colonize’ global health.
ICFP Power Shifting Sponsor
Thank you to the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) for supporting this important work.
ICFP 2025
Power Shifting Subcommittee Recap
Led by Goodness Odey, the ICFP Power Shifting Subcommittee orchestrated one of ICFP 2025’s most transformative initiatives, bringing together over 350 participants from diverse sectors to fundamentally reimagine how power operates within the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) movement. The subcommittee’s work challenged the field to move beyond aspirational rhetoric toward concrete, accountable action that redistributes resources and decision-making authority to communities most affected by inequitable systems.
Major Events, Activities, and Impact
Power Shifting Pre-conference:
The pre-conference drew over 350 participants from INGOs, grassroots organizations, funders, researchers, and youth activists. Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng, UN Independent Expert on Health, delivered the opening keynote, challenging the field to move beyond celebrating resilience and instead address the systems that necessitate such survival.
Humentum’s TIME Initiative facilitated the main plenary session, introducing a forest ecosystem metaphor for understanding resilience and regeneration in organizational transformation.
Four Groundbreaking Thematic Breakout Sessions Explored:
- Intersectional Storytelling: introduced the concept of “care-confrontation” for centering marginalized voices
- Collective Resistance: featured the SheDecides Abortion Archives project documenting opposition to SRHR movements
- Knowledge Generation: advanced the framework of “power circulation” versus one-time “power shifting”
- HIV and Reproductive Justice: presented ICW Global research with concrete, time-bound action commitments using OHCHR guidelines
Innovative Approaches:
- The subcommittee pioneered multilingual accessibility using Dembrane, a GDPR-compliant platform offering real-time interpretation in French and Spanish.
- Interactive polling, through Mentimeter, enabled real-time participant feedback.
- The Equity Pause Checklist launched as a practical tool for organizations to assess whether equity truly guides their work.
- A comprehensive resource hub accessible via QR code facilitated Community of Practice sign-up, which grew to 679 members on the IBP Network and over 1,000 members on the ICFP listserv.
Key Takeaways
Power Must Circulate, Not Just Shift Once:
The most significant conceptual breakthrough of the subcommittee’s activities was reframing from “power shifting” (one-time transfer) to “power circulation” (ongoing redistribution practice). This recognizes transformation as relational and regenerative, not transactional or temporary.
Communities Are Knowledge Holders:
Epistemic justice emerged as central. Communities teach practitioners; activists are researchers. The artificial distinctions between “experts” and “beneficiaries” must be dismantled. Trust-building requires time, resources, and genuine co-creation.
The Sector Cannot Transform While in Survival Mode:
Critical data revealed 62% of nonprofits have less than six months of financial reserves; 54% are considering restructuring or merging. Organizations cannot transform systems while those systems collapse around them.
Youth Need Resources, Not Just Platforms:
Young people are invited to speak but not resourced to lead. Tokenistic youth engagement perpetuates extraction. Genuine inclusion means money, decision-making authority, and sustained support.
Powerful Voices
“Don’t celebrate how resilient we are—we are tired of being resilient. Celebrating communities’ ability to survive becomes another way of avoiding accountability for changing the conditions that require such survival.”
“Transformation is not only about conversation but about action.”
Call to Action
For Funders:
Move from rhetoric to resource redistribution. Provide flexible, long-term funding that supports organizational transformation, not just project deliverables.
For Organizations:
Implement the Equity Pause Checklist. Create accountability mechanisms with concrete actions, clear timelines, and community-led monitoring—not aspirational goals.
For All:
Join the Shifting Power Community of Practice. Commit to power circulation as ongoing practice. Build coordinated response infrastructure to counter better-resourced anti-rights movements.
Power Shifting Community Resources
View power shifting-related resources submitted by the global SRHR community in the table below.
ICFP Power Shifting
Event Recordings
View recordings from past webinars, discussions, and in-person events hosted by the ICFP Power Shifting Subcommittee below, available in English, French, and Spanish. Explore powerful discussions on equity, inclusion, and shifting power within the global SRHR movement.
ICFP Power Shifting Video Highlight
Opportunities for Meaningful Engagement in Shifting Power in SRHR
The new Power Shifting in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) Community of Practice hosted its inaugural meeting on 13 July 2023 to introduce its objectives and hear about opportunities for meaningful engagement with local community-based organizations and young people in power shifting. Watch the event below in English & French!
Meet the ICFP Community
The ICFP platform is anchored by 11 dynamic subcommittees, bringing together individuals and organizations from across the global sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) community.
