Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters Podcast

Who produces knowledge on gender and sexual and reproductive health in Africa, and whose voices shape the evidence that informs policy and practice?

In this episode of the SRHM Podcast, Sapna Desai, Editor-in-Chief of the SRHM Journal, speaks with researchers Woldekidan Amde and Kéfilath Bello about their recent scoping review examining authorship, geography, and funding in research on gender approaches to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) across Africa.
Analysing 45 publications from 2012 to 2022, the study reveals striking imbalances. Most first and senior authors were based outside Africa, funding overwhelmingly came from high income countries, and over one fifth of papers had no local authors at all. These patterns raise critical questions about power in knowledge production, the credibility and relevance of research, and the ability of evidence to influence policy and practice locally.

The conversation explores why these inequities persist despite growing calls to decolonise global health. It also looks at what must change: strengthening local research ecosystems, expanding mentoring for early career researchers, supporting south–south collaboration, and ensuring equitable funding and authorship practices.

Together, the speakers reflect on how more locally led, contextually grounded research is essential not only for equity, but for better quality knowledge and meaningful change in sexual and reproductive health.

Read the full paper, 'Imbalances in authorship, geographic and institutional contexts, and funding sources in research on gender approaches to sexual and reproductive health in Africa: a scoping review' by Woldekidan Amde, Kéfilath Bello, Tanya Jacobs, TK Sundari Ravindran & Asha S. George at srhmjournal.org.

In this episode of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters Podcast, Eszter Kismődi speaks with Dr Shirin Heidari and Professor Monica A. Onyango about their multi-country study, Survival Strategies and Health Repercussions in Forced Displacement.
Drawing on research conducted between 2021 and 2024 in Jordan, Lebanon, Türkiye, Greece and Switzerland, they examine how transactional sex emerges within conditions of legal precarity, restricted asylum regimes, housing insecurity and limited access to work and services.
The conversation challenges binary notions of “choice” and “force”, highlights intersecting health consequences including sexual and reproductive health outcomes, and calls for integrated, rights-based responses grounded in lived realities.Read the full paper at srhmjournal.org.

This Valentine’s Day and World Condom Day, SRHM turns to pleasure.
In this episode, we spotlight the editorial of SRHM’s Pleasure Collection developed in collaboration with The Pleasure Project and Agents of Ishq.
Too often, sexual and reproductive health and rights are framed only through risk, prevention and harm. This editorial invites us to think differently. It calls for a politics of pleasure that is decolonial, grounded in lived experience, and willing to challenge hierarchies about who produces knowledge and what counts as credible.
Marking 13 and 14 February, we also highlight a clear message backed by evidence: when pleasure is centred, condom use increases. Pleasure and protection belong together.
Featuring a reading by Anne Philpott and Elena Ascione from The Pleasure Project, this episode is also an open invitation.
Send us your love letters. Send your papers, blogs, poetry, podcast ideas, art, as we celebrate sexual pleasure as a key aspect of sexual and reproductive health and rights for all.

Because pleasure is progress. Pleasure matters.

Useful links:
Read the editorial, 'Finding the cosmos of intimacies: where pleasurable safe sex dances with liberation' by Anne Phihlpott and Paromita Vohra at srhmjournal.org.
Explore the Pleasure Collection of the SRHM Journal at srhm.org.

On 9 September 2025, SRHM hosted a thought-provoking webinar to launch the open-access book Female Genital Mutilation in Africa: Politics of Criminalisation, edited by Satang Nabaneh, Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of Dayton Human Rights Center, and affiliated faculty at the Center for Human Rights, University of Pretoria.

Introduced by Eszter Kismödi, Chief Executive of SRHM, the event brought together contributing authors to reflect on the complex and evolving debates around FGM in Africa, particularly the role and limits of criminalization.

Speakers:
Satang Nabaneh (Moderator) - Beyond legislation: Examining the efficacy of criminalisation of female genital mutilation in Africa
Angela J Dawson - Research and female genital mutilation prevention: Evidence from Africa
Samuel Kimani - Medicalisation of female genital mutilation/cutting: Ethical dimensions
Laura Nyirinkindi - A case commentary on law and advocacy for women in Uganda v the Attorney General: Exploring the legal steps taken in abolishing the practice of female genital mutilation and challenges with implementing the decision
This episode is being re-released on the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation 2026.

In a new episode of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters (SRHM) podcast, SRHM convenes leading experts and advocates to unpack the implications of three newly issued U.S. foreign assistance rules and what they mean for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) worldwide.

To explore the nature, scope, and consequences of these rules, SRHM Chief Executive, Eszter Kismődi, is joined by Elizabeth Sully, Director of International Research at the Guttmacher Institute; Amy Friedrich-Karnik, Director of Federal Policy at the Guttmacher Institute; and Mina Barling, Director of External Relations at the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

Together, they bring complementary perspectives spanning policy analysis, evidence generation, and frontline service delivery and advocacy.