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Women Deliver is the world's largest conference on gender equality and the rights, health and wellbeing of women and girls. From June 3rd to June 6th, the Women Deliver Global Conference will take place in Vancouver, Canada. Rutgers will lead a number of side events, as well as host a booth showcasing our advocacy, implementation and research work from across the globe.

The International Conference on Family Planning 2018 takes place from November 12 to November 15 in Kigali, Rwanda. Rutgers is leading a number of side events at this conference. In this live blog we keep you up to date on all our activities.

Today is a day to draw global attention to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), which is our expertise! With 50 years of experience Rutgers is a leader in this field. Our researcher, Miranda van Reeuwijk explains the impact of our unique approach of combining research, advocacy and interventions - nationally and internationally.

From July 21 to July 27, Rutgers attended the 22nd International AIDS Conference 2018 in Amsterdam. We've led multiple side events on linking the HIV response to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Our Aids2018 experiences were collected in a live-blog, which resulted in an interesting recap of world's largest conference on any global health or development issue.

The chances of knowing someone who had experienced sexual violence are high if you live in a small country such as Honduras. Few laws protect our girls and women, and current events show increased levels of impunity that are likely to undermine our rights.

Sometimes, in the fight for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), we forget to look in our own backyard. The debate on paternity leave in the Netherlands continues to be a hot-button topic, especially with the upcoming elections. Whereas maternity leave is considered to be an inalienable right, many people are divided or even undecided about the same rights for fathers. In trying to maintain a dialogue about this subject, it’s clear that a political, cultural and economic shift is needed in our country.

There is not a day that goes by that we don't hear about the high rate of HIV/AIDS or teen pregnancies amongst young people in the news in Nigeria. Now several countries and programs have shown that improving young people's access to sexual and reproductive health information and services can help to change the situation. But, as also the United Nations Commission on Life Saving Commodities reports states, 'too often, affordable, effective medicines and simple health supplies don’t reach the women who need them.'

It’s one of the busiest periods for international Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights advocates. In a few weeks time, 13-17 April 2015, the 48th session of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development will take place in New York. Rutgers is intensely involved in this conference. This year with advocate Merel Heilmann in the Dutch government delegation, Yvonne Bogaarts and advocate Rineke van Dam supporting more than 15 partners from Africa, Asia and the Arab region to influence the outcome of the conference. To follow the activities of Merel, Yvonne, Rineke and all the partners in the coming weeks, you better know what’s at stake…

Imagine you could only have safe sex nine times a year. At other times you would have to control yourself, or just accept the risks. This is the reality in sub-Sahara Africa where only nine condoms a year are available for each sexually active man or woman, not to mention that only one female condom per year is available for every eight women!

On the 10th of December, we celebrate Human Rights Day which marks the end of this year’s 16-day campaign (#16Days) to eliminate violence against women. It is a bitter-sweet day. Even where human rights treaties and standards address gender based violence and protect women's rights, national laws dictate the daily lives of women.

Last week in Nairobi, Kenya, a young lady wanted to get inside a matatu – a minibus commonly used for public transport in East Africa. Before she knew what was happening to her, she was stripped naked by a group of men. Tossed around, hands tearing her clothes and grabbing and touching skin and intimate body parts. Her miniskirt and top were shredded until nothing was left but her underwear. It was all filmed and shared across Kenya and the world.

Rwanda was the proud host of the second international MenCare+ partnermeeting in May 2014.

From 7 to 11 April, the 47th session of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) is held in New York. This is a yearly conference that monitors, reviews and assesses the implementation of the agreements made at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt. These agreements are set out in the Programme of Action (PoA), which is a rights-based development framework.

I really need to write down my thoughts and reflections, cause I’m afraid I will lose it if I don’t start to download and share it soon. To free some space on my hard drive and to inform you on what’s going on inside of me.

On this blog, Kelvin Mokaya reflects on the journey his advocacy work had taken him: from his hometown in Kenya to the UN High-level Political Forum 2016 in New York. Kelvin is currently at New York advocating for meaningful youth participation to make sure that young people reap the full benefits of the SDGs.