EngenderHealth Newsletter | January 2026: Protecting Care and Expanding Choice
As we begin a new year, we are reflecting on what it means to stand up for reproductive choice during uncertain times. This month’s newsletter highlights how EngenderHealth is working with women and communities worldwide to protect hard-won progress today while building momentum for what comes next.
As you read on, you’ll see how practical solutions, local leadership, and collective action are driving real change, and how your voice and engagement can help carry this work forward.
Global Impact
Increasing Access to Hormonal Intrauterine Devices in Kenya
Many women in Kenya still cannot access the hormonal IUD (HIUD), a contraceptive method that can prevent unintended pregnancy and help manage heavy menstrual bleeding. EngenderHealth is partnering with Kenya’s Ministry of Health, KMET, and Lwala, with funding from the Gates Foundation, to expand HIUD services across seven counties in Kenya.
By strengthening public facilities, supporting providers, and ensuring communities have clear, trusted information, this work will help more people choose the contraceptive method that feels right for their lives and futures. Learn more…
Leadership, Data, and a Breakthrough in Postpartum Family Planning
In just three months, immediate postpartum family planning uptake at a busy health center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, rose from 18% to over 70%. Through leadership, real-time data use, and integrated counseling across services, EngenderHealth is helping more mothers leave informed, respected, and able to choose the family planning method that works for them. Read how leadership and data drove this turnaround…
Everywhere we work, EngenderHealth’s teams support communities in centering reproductive choice and respect, ensuring people receive the care they need when it matters most. Explore more stories of change on our website: Impact Stories.
Urgent & Vetted: Safeguarding Lifesaving Care Where Progress is at Risk
What happens when years of lifesaving maternal, newborn, and child health work end without warning? That is the reality many communities faced when USAID-funded programs were abruptly terminated across multiple countries.
EngenderHealth is now advancing initiatives designed to restart and scale work that ended too soon, bringing proven care back to the communities that depend on it most. These projects have been designated Urgent and Vetted by Project Resource Optimization (PRO), a platform hosted by the Center for Global Development that identifies high-priority, fundable opportunities following funding disruptions.
This approach has already helped fully fund EngenderHealth’s Safe Cesarean Checklist project in India, demonstrating what’s possible when timely support meets proven solutions. That success now creates a clear path forward. Below are two opportunities that can be resumed quickly and make an immediate difference.
Ethiopia: Essential Care for Families in Afar and Somali Regions
In Ethiopia’s Afar and Somali regions, the early termination of the EngenderHealth-led Lowlands Health Activity in 2025 disrupted essential maternal, newborn, and child health services across public facilities and mobile teams. Communities already facing barriers to care lost access to routine services, outreach, and lifesaving support.
With timely investment, EngenderHealth can reconnect at least half a million people to essential health services, strengthening care across facilities and mobile teams and helping prevent further backsliding in maternal and child health outcomes. Explore the Ethiopia opportunity on PRO…
Mozambique: Emergency Maternal & Newborn Care at a Critical Moment
In Mozambique’s Niassa Province, women and newborns face some of the country’s highest risks during childbirth due to gaps in emergency obstetric and newborn care, including access to safe cesarean delivery, neonatal resuscitation, and timely referral. When USAID funding ended, EngenderHealth-led efforts to strengthen emergency readiness, clinical mentorship, and referral systems were interrupted just as care was expanding.
With renewed support, EngenderHealth can resume and strengthen emergency maternal and newborn care across 205 public health facilities, reaching approximately 160,000 pregnant women and newborns over the next 18 months. Learn more about the Mozambique opportunity on PRO…
Stay Informed: Latest News and Resources
“You Had a Transformative Impact on People’s Lives.”
As the global SRHR community continues to process the dismantling of USAID, people from across the field were invited to share what the agency’s decades of leadership in family planning and reproductive health meant to them. Their reflections speak to USAID’s courage, inclusiveness, and profound impact—and to the shared commitment to carry this work forward. Read the full responses from colleagues and partners across the global health community…
Everybody is Leading Something: Rethinking Power
Traci L. Baird, President & CEO of EngenderHealth, was featured on the Lessons From Leaders podcast. In the conversation, Traci reflects on collaborative leadership, shared power, and what it takes to lead teams through change. Listen here…
Building Health Systems That Work
At a recent primary healthcare convening in Lagos, Dr. Kabiru Atta, EngenderHealth’s Country Representative in Nigeria, emphasized that strong health systems require trained health workers, reliable commodities, and sustained investment, not just infrastructure. “You can have the best buildings, but without health workers and commodities, the system cannot move,” he said, highlighting why prevention remains the most effective and sustainable approach. Read the full article…
What You Can Do
A Major Policy Shift with Global Consequences
The global gag rule has been expanded for the first time to apply to all non-military U.S. foreign assistance. This sweeping change puts lifesaving humanitarian and health programs at risk by restricting essential health services, silencing trusted providers, and undermining aid during crises.
Taking action matters right now. Even a few minutes can help protect health, dignity, and human rights worldwide.
Learn what’s changed and how to contact your Members of Congress …
Here are a few resources shaping conversations in global health and rights:
- A historic shift in philanthropic giving: The Gates Foundation announced it will commit to an unprecedented $9 billion in annual payouts, increasing its spend rate to maximize mission impact and direct more resources to programs as it plans toward closure in 2045.
- How solidarity becomes action: The online feminist learning space The Body Politic’s course Activism, Allies, and Intersections explores how intersectionality and allyship can drive collective change—through accessible, bite-sized learning modules.
- The real-world impact of U.S. aid cuts: A new report from the Women’s Refugee Council documents how funding reductions have led to widespread losses in healthcare, GBV services, education, and livelihoods across 32 humanitarian settings—hitting women, girls, and women-led organizations hardest.
Your Support Makes a Difference
By donating to EngenderHealth, you help us drive impactful, gender-equitable programs that promote health, equality, and rights. Your support enables us to protect sexual and reproductive rights as fundamental human rights, ensuring that everyone has access to the care they deserve.
Other ways to support EngenderHealth:
- Stay informed and share: Read our short global gag rule policy explainer and share it with colleagues or friends to help build understanding of what’s changed and why it matters.
- Share the work: Follow @EngenderHealth on social media and help amplify analysis, stories, and actions that advance health and rights.
- Invite others in: Forward this newsletter or encourage a friend to sign up and be part of this growing community.
Thank you for being part of this community. Together, we’re proving that care, courage, and collective action can create lasting change.
We’d love to hear from you about what you want to see in future newsletters. Contact us at social@engenderhealth.org.
This email was originally shared over email on January 29, 2026.
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