The Family Planning/Reproductive Health (FP/RH) Equity Working Group works to advance thought leadership, collaboration and foster peer-to-peer learning in the field of equity in FP/RH. The Working Group is intended to represent a diverse range of knowledge, experience, perspectives and countries. As such, membership is comprised of a multi-disciplinary group of implementers, researchers, donors, and community actors within the global public health and international development sectors. The Working Group is governed by a Steering Committee, and the R4S project serves as Secretariat. For a compilation of resources related to FP/RH equity, please click here.

FP/RH Equity Working Group membership is open to all.

Priorities of the FP/RH Equity Working Group include:

Develop consensus around, and advance and promote a mutual and universal understanding of, equity in FP/RH by establishing and sharing common definitions and measures.
Identify gaps in equity in the FP/RH knowledge base and seek to fill those gaps by facilitating knowledge sharing between organizations and governments, including Ministries of Health, and by synthesizing and broadly disseminating research, program evaluations, lessons learned, evidence-based approaches, and other tools and resources as they emerge.
Develop new resources and practical tools to guide the uptake of evidence-based approaches in both routine and non-standard data collection, to advance equity in FP/RH around the globe.

WORKING GROUP CHARTER

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Meet the Steering Committee

The Steering Committee serves as the leadership and oversight body of the FP/RH Equity Working Group.

Shiza Farid

Family Planning Data Analysis Advisor, Public Health Institute

Shiza Farid is currently at the Public Health Institute (PHI) as a Family Planning Data Analysis Advisor. In this role, she is seconded to the FP2030 team at the UN Foundation. She supports analyses related to global family planning. Prior to joining PHI (from 2018-2022), Shiza supported analyses related to family planning and demography at Avenir Health and was at the UN Foundation as a Manager of Global Policy for the Universal Access Project (UAP). She has experience conducting data analysis, data cleaning, and creating data visualizations for UNICEF’s gender portfolio, University of Washington’s Global Center for Integrated Health of Women, Adolescents, and Children, and PATH’s Sayana Press team. Shiza has a Master of Public Health with a concentration in global health metrics and evaluation from the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington and a Bachelors of Arts in Economics and International Relations from American University in Washington, D.C.

François Goumou

Economist and HCMS-Guinea Board Member

Mr. François Goumou is a Guinean economist and civil society actor. He is currently a trainer on gender-based violence and reproductive health with 6 years of experience in managing projects on youth access to information on these topics. He serves as a member of the board of directors of the non-governmental organization entitled Guinea Health Care And Medical Services (HCMS-GUINEA).

Dr. Leah Gwatimba

Consultant, World Bank Group

Leah is an experienced human rights and research professional passionate about giving a voice to marginalized communities. She has worked as a Consultant at the World Bank Group for the Health, Nutrition, and Population Global Practice and is currently a Gender Research Analyst for the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor. Leah aims to improve people’s lives by promoting access to high-quality services, education, and information on family planning and reproductive health. She strongly advocates for policies and programs that promote equity and inclusivity.

Leah holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Gender Studies, with a research focus on the impact of primordial cultural practices in South Africa and Zimbabwe on the sexual and reproductive health rights of young women in customary marriages.

Dr. Issoufa Harou

Directeur Général de la Planification Familiale au Ministère de la Santé Publique du Niger

Dr. Issoufa Harou has been the Managing Director of Reproductive and Population Health since September 2021. He has been the Director of Family Planning at the Niger Ministry of Public Health since 2019. As an OB-GYN with a specialty in surgery, he has more than 15 years of experience in the field of gynecology and obstetric surgery; maternal and child health; and family planning. He is also a trainer in obstetric and urgent neonatal care, screening precancerous legions, prenatal consultation, newborn care, contraceptive technology, and maternal death and clinical audits. Dr. Issoufa Harou is the Vice-President of the Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Niger, President of the Network for the Eradication of Obstetric Fistula, and a permanent member of the International Society for Obstetric Fistula Surgeons (ISOFS).

Jostas Mwebembezi

Founder and Executive Director, Rwenzori Center for Research and Advocacy

Mr. Jostas is a Founder & Executive Director of Rwenzori Center for Research and Advocacy (RCRA), a 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization. Mr.Jostas has over 11 years’ experience in integrated public health and climate resilience. His expertise has seen him manage exciting missions focused on health systems strengthening, equity, youth and women’s empowerment programs, integrated sexual, reproductive, maternal newborn and child health, plus nutrition, HIV/AIDS, TB, regenerative agriculture, climate change, gender-based violence and capacity building. He is a champion for population, health and environment (PHE) integration for sustainable development in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Mr. Jostas, through learning while championing community health and integrated family planning outreach clinics, founded a private nonprofit Community Health Centre III, and adolescent centre in Western Uganda. Mr. Jostas is a seasoned public health specialist and harnesses innovation with managerial skills.

Andrew Okello

Monitoring Evaluation Research & Learning Associate, Medical Research Council / Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Andrew Okello is a Monitoring Evaluation Research & Learning (MERL) Associate at the Medical Research Council / Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in Uganda. He is currently pursuing a Master of Public Health Monitoring and Evaluation from Makerere University School of Public Health. Mr. Okello has more than 5 years experience implementing public health Interventions focusing on adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Uganda. He is passionate about the impact of FP/RH on the community for sustainable development.

Shefa Sikder

Senior Technical Advisor in Health at CARE

Shefa works with CARE as a Senior Technical Advisor in Health supporting health programs in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Tanzania, and domestically in the US. Shefa completed her master’s and PhD in Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. With Johns Hopkins, she worked in northwest rural Bangladesh for 5 years on community and facility studies on women’s health and family planning. Shefa worked for USAID Washington’s Office of Population and Reproductive Health for 5 years as a Senior Technical Advisor supporting bilateral health projects in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Myanmar, and East Africa. Previously, she worked for the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, MCHIP (Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program), and Ashoka: Innovators for the Public.

Dr. Aguima Frank Tankoano

Chief of Party of AmplifyPF

Dr. Tankoano Aguima Frank is a health professional with more than 32 years’ experience out of which 29-years’ public health experience in managing complex international health programs with multicultural teams and assisting healthcare programs in West Africa in health systems strengthening (HSS); Sexual and Reproductive health (SRH), Family Planning, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (MNCH); HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and Tuberculosis (TB) prevention and treatment. He is currently the Chief of Party of AmplifyPF, a USAID regional Family Planning flagship program in West Africa managed by Pathfinder international. Prior joining AmplifyPF in August 2018, he served as Chief of Party for Global Funds’ HIV prevention among key populations in Mali with Plan International; Chief of Party of PMI project to promote malaria prevention and treatment (ProMPT) in Ghana; Chief of Party of USAID Family Health project in Benin with University Research Co. Citizen of Burkina Faso, he graduated MD in his country and obtain his MPH at Tulane School of Public Health (New Orleans-USA). He is fluent in English and French; and is a former Humphrey Fellow.

Sira Sojourner Touré

Medical student/youth activist

Touré Sira Sojourner is a young Malian medical student who is passionate about new information and communication technologies. She is also an activist and social changemaker and works in several humanitarian organizations as a standard bearer of youth. Her goal is to improve the living conditions of young people and their access to FP/RH services while considering their needs to ensure they achieve their personal goals. Strongly convinced that advocacy can bring about positive change in the areas of adolescent and youth rep, women’s health, reducing maternal and child mortality, she has become the voice of the voiceless in her community.

Dr. Rhoda Wanyenze, MBChB, MPH, PhD

Dean of the School of Public Health and a Professor in the Department of Disease Control and Environmental Health at Makerere University.

Dr. Wanyenze has vast experience in public health research, capacity building, and program management, especially in infectious diseases, sexual and reproductive health, and health systems. Dr. Wanyenze has led a wide network of research partnerships with academic institutions and ministries of health in Africa. She has served on Boards of several organizations in Uganda and globally. She is a Fellow of the Uganda National Academy of Sciences.