Dear Colleagues
Two years ago, emerging from the murder of George Floyd (in 2020) as well as requests from staff within the organisation, we started a process of examining racism within the secretariat.
As a start to our process we procured expert consultants to support this deep dive examination of issues related to racism and coloniality.
This report, including findings and recommendations, was shared with all secretariat staff in July 2021 and as the secretariat we took some time to assess our own processes and approaches. We also thank the working group that supported this process throughout.
An Anti-Racism Programme of Action was established to take forward the recommendations towards becoming an anti-racist secretariat.
As a part of the Programme of Action we have since:
- Established an expanded working group within the secretariat to address some of the recommendations from the review report.
- Established a Board of Trustees Sub Committee to support the oversight of the implementation of the recommendations and provide advice.
- Procured trainers to support staff in developing an anti-racist approach within the secretariat
As the next step in our process we are now sharing with you the Executive summary and the recommendations of the review report below to ensure that we can work forward with you into the new strategy as well as co-develop our own Federation-wide statement of anti-racism. I include for your information as well the Directors’ Leadership Team (DLT)’s response to the results of the review, and the Board of Trustees’ statement which sets out IPPF’s intentions.
A big thank you to the Member Associations who expressed their interest to support the development of a Public Statement of Action on Anti-Racism for IPPF and by joining the MA Task Team supporting the secretariat anti-racism expanded working group. Thank you to Namibia (AR), Congo Brazzaville (AR), Tunisia (AWR), Malawi (AR), New Zealand (ESEAOR), India (SAR), Albania (EN), and the Caribbean (ACR ).
As a next step, the MA Task Team will engage with all MAs to ensure your inputs and feedback are reflected in the Public Statement of Action on Anti-Racism for IPPF to be delivered at the General Assembly this November.
We look forward to your continued engagement and trust as we work to centre the needs, concerns and experiences of every individual within the Federation to make the changes needed for us to make IPPF a truly anti-racist federation.
If you have any questions or would like access to the full report, please reach out to Rayana Rassool – rrassool@ippf.org
In Solidarity
Alvaro
One cannot claim to be “not racist” and do nothing about it, rather, we must be actively anti-racist and take steps to combat racism in our lives
Thank you Liai. Agreed wholeheartedly on your view and we want to see our words turn into actions with your help and that of all MAs.