What More Can the Global SRHR and Family Planning Communities Learn from LAC’s Experiences, Struggles and Innovations?
By Laura Ramos Tomás, part of the Habla LAC Series
Beyond lessons in navigating shrinking foreign aid, LAC movements contribute essential strategies that can inform and strengthen global SRHR and family planning efforts. These include the following:
Community-led and Grassroots Approaches
Strong community networks that sustain SRHR advocacy and service provision despite limited or no government or international funding, showing resilience through mutual aid and grassroots organizing. (Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia)
Feminist and youth-led initiatives offering sexuality education workshops in schools, shelters, favelas, and rural communities, often in informal or improvised settings (Argentina, Honduras, Guatemala, Brazil)
Indigenous and Afro-descendant women’s leadership anchoring SRHR strategies in cultural identity, ancestral knowledge, and territorial defense, particularly in resistance to extractivism and structural racism (Peru, Guatemala)
Community-based monitoring systems tracking contraceptive stockouts, barriers to access, and violations of care protocols in under-resourced public health systems (Guatemala)
Inclusion of Marginalized Populations
SRHR programs intentionally designed for rural youth, LGBTQ+ communities, people living with HIV, and people with disabilities, often co-led by those most affected
Intersectional approaches that reflect a deep understanding of how territory, class, race, gender identity, and sexual orientation shape access to rights
Participation of men and boys in education and implementation of programming (Brazil, Honduras)
Digital Tools and Adaptation
Aya Contigo: digital harm-reduction app, offering confidential, rights-based support for safe abortion and SRHR information in a context of legal and medical collapse (Venezuela)
DigiCuida: chatbot created by and for youth promoting rights, accessibility and feminist self-care. (Guatemala)
Strategic use of WhatsApp, Instagram, and other digital platforms to distribute SRHR information in accessible, low-cost formats (Argentina, Brazil)
Transformative Sexuality Education
Peer-to-peer education models that emphasize consent, pleasure, and emotional wellbeing (Argentina, Brazil)
Implementation of informal CSE programs in contexts where state delivery is limited or censored (Peru, Guatemala, Honduras)
Adaptation of content to Indigenous and intercultural contexts (Peru, Guatemala)
Collective Advocacy and Strategic Alliances
Intergenerational and multisector alliances pushing for abortion rights, CSE, and menstrual justice (such as the ‘National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free Abortion’ in Argentina, the ‘Children Aren’t Mothers’ campaign in Brazil, and further efforts in Chile, Panama)
Legal activism and public communication strategies that humanize the fight for rights (Argentina, Chile, Colombia)
Horizontal collaborations between grassroots movements, national NGOs, and transnational feminist networks to share strategies and resist conservative backlash (Peru, Chile, Guatemala)
Feminist Media and Knowledge Production
Feminist journalism platforms documenting SRHR struggles and amplifying grassroots voices as a form of advocacy and resistance (including Portal Catarinas in Brazil and independent media in Argentina)
Participatory data collection and youth-led research initiatives that generate locally rooted evidence to shape public policy and donor agendas (Colombia, Guatemala)
Check out the full HABLA LAC Series