As we begin this pivotal year, we are reminded that only five years remain to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). And while we have all been working to jumpstart movement to counter stalling progress over the past years, we continue to be faced with new challenges every day. Recent geopolitical shifts and foreign aid decisions are having catastrophic consequences for health and development financing and pose serious challenges to our collective efforts to advance the health and rights of women, children, and adolescents. Compounding this, the reinstatement of the Global Gag Rule in the United States threatens to derail the hard-won gains in sexual and reproductive health and rights by not only reducing financing but by creating a policy and legislative environment that promises to decrease access to essential lifesaving interventions. As Western governments slash billions in foreign aid budgets, women, adolescents and children in the world’s most vulnerable communities face a grim reality. The fragile health systems they depend on are crumbling. The global health community now confronts its most significant challenge in decades on how to sustain critical health services amid dwindling international support and growing political opposition to gender equality and reproductive rights. This isn’t just about finding new money — it’s about fundamentally transforming how we finance, deliver, and advocate for women, children and adolescents’ health. Now, more than ever, our partnership work is essential.
Nature is issuing red alerts, as evidenced by the many catastrophes we are experiencing which if left unchecked, will keep aggravating food shortages, water scarcity, diseases, conflicts, migration and poverty, all of which could culminate in the destabilization of economies.
INERELA+ has been at the forefront of responding to these challenges. We have issued a statement against the global gag rule. We have also engaged with the private sector to strengthen their role in supporting women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health (WCAH). The CSO Forum which ran from 3- 5 April 2025 in Maseru Lesotho is dynamic platform which allowed INERELA+ to explore practical approaches and solutions that can accelerate progress on commitments to children’s, and adolescents’ issues.
We have been strengthening partnerships of which together with Faith to Action Network we have an opportunity of joint work through a new project “Faith Movement for Gender Justice”, that will be implemented from January 2025 to December 2026. Now, more than ever, we must remain steadfast and united in our efforts. By coming together through partnerships, we can push back against the challenges before us and accelerate progress toward the SDGs. From the 14th to the 17th of April 2025 we hosted Ms Yvette Ntamon Edichi, an Ivorian National from the “Alliance des Leaders Religieux pour la Sante Integrale et la Promotion de la Personne Humaine” (ARSIP)through a peer learning exchange visit that aimed at fostering mutual learning to advance gender justice and share best practice. This was funded by Faith to Action Network. Find out more about F2A Network here.
Our Faith leaders continue to sound the alarm against extreme and erratic climate events on local communities, highlighting existing inequalities that women, children, young people, the underprivileged and most vulnerable members of society face.
With a newly appointed INERELA+ Secretariat board in February 2025 we have reflected on our next strategic direction, key concepts of which were discussed in a recent virtual meeting which was attended by INERELA+ board members and representatives from our Country Networks. We are also preparing for our learning forum which will focus a lot on climate change, mental health and the impact on health.
In Solidarity
Munya Mandipaza
Executive Director