As the world marked World Social Justice Day (February 20), the ICFP Power Shifting Subcommittee convened a global dialogue to explore one urgent question: Why is sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) a social justice issue? The conversation moved beyond theory and into lived realities.
Clara Maliwa (UNDP Tanzania) grounded the discussion powerfully: “Social justice begins when we recognize each other as full human beings.” Speaking not from theory but from lived experience as a person with albinism who faced stigma, discrimination, and violence, she reminded participants that injustice appears when dignity is denied. When she shared, “When the health system judges instead of care, that is social injustice,” the conversation became clear: sexual and reproductive health and rights is not only about services; it is about power, dignity, and who gets treated as fully human. Her challenge echoed throughout the session: “Why should survival be a standard?”
Cinamon Nyagaka, a medical doctor and youth advocate from Kenya, set the tone for the panel by pushing speakers and participants to engage not as neutral observers, but as people with a stake in who holds power in health, whose knowledge counts, and what justice actually looks like in practice.
Panelists emphasized that injustice is both structural and coordinated. Nomtika from Frontline AIDS made clear that what many people experience as healthcare access is, in reality, still a privilege: “All of these things are currently sitting as privileges, when in fact, they are fundamental human rights.” She described reproductive justice not as a legal concept but as the presence of real social, economic, and political conditions that allow people to make decisions about their bodies and lives without harm or structural punishment.
Amaranta Gómez-Regalado, a Zapotec Indigenous activist and anthropologist, brought an essential dimension to the conversation: the unfinished struggle against coloniality. She underscored that health access must be culturally competent, responsive to language, identity, and community context, and that racism and classism continue to shape health outcomes, including through missing or distorted data. Her reminder that gender diversity is not new, but ancestral, challenged systems to stop lagging behind communities that have always known this.
On the coordinated nature of the backlash, Naike Ledan of ILGA World was direct: “Anti-rights actors are transnational, narrative-driven, and strategically aligned.” She described a repeating playbook of legal restrictions, moral panic, weaponized religion, and digital disinformation, and named it for what it is: not local prejudice, but “governance restructuring through gender.” This means advancing social justice in SRHR requires equal coordination, long-term strategy, and movements that refuse to be fragmented.
The session closed with clear action steps across different levels;
At the individual level, participants were encouraged to tell their stories, challenge stigma in everyday conversations, write commentaries, mobilize in their communities, and walk the talk.
At the social and community level, the call was to break silos and build what Amaranta described as collaborative intersectionality, moving beyond describing overlapping struggles to actively organizing across them. Nomtika reinforced a foundational principle: “Communities have the solutions to their problems,” and programming must be designed to reflect that, not override it.
At the donor level, the message was unambiguous. Naike challenged the funding landscape directly: “Funders need to catch up with us.” Infrastructure including security, narrative power, movement coordination, and convening must stop being treated as overhead and start being recognized as frontline work. Amaranta pushed further, calling for diversification beyond Northern philanthropy and stronger investment in South-South resourcing and regional solidarity: “Necesitamos diversificar… pensar en financiamientos del sur”– we need to diversify and think about financing from the South.
At the government level, commitments must move beyond paper policies to real implementation, investing in inclusive health systems, ending stigma in care settings, protecting civic space, and ensuring that legal rights translate into lived protections for those most excluded.
On the whole, the webinar reminded us that social justice is not charity, and it is not a slogan. It is design. It is funding priorities. It is how systems respond in moments of vulnerability. As Clara concluded: “Justice begins the moment we recognize each other as full human beings. And until that recognition becomes reality, our work is not done.”
World Social Justice Day may be one day on the calendar, but the responsibility to act, individually, collectively, and institutionally, belongs to all of us, every day.
Written by the webinar moderators; Goodness Odey and Innocent Grant.
