FP2030 continues in its journey to transform our structure to strengthen the global family planning partnership!

FP2030 is pleased to announce the next phase of our shift to a regional structure with the hiring of the first support team outside of the North America and Europe Hub, in the FP2030 East and Southern Africa Hub based in Nairobi, Kenya. The team will be led by Dr. Sheila Macharia, a renowned global health advocate and policy expert with deep regional and global networks. She will oversee a multi-disciplinary team that will support FP2030 commitment makers as they implement their commitments and advocate for increased investment and program improvements in family planning.

Dr. Macharia sees the opportunity a regional team will provide to power the partnership to greater success in the region: “This East and Southern Africa Hub provides an opportunity to strengthen intentional partnerships with adolescents and youth, men and women and country-level partners including governments, civil society and youth organizations and the private sector, aimed at increasing commitments for family planning and building coalitions based on a common understanding of contextual opportunities, challenges and solutions.”

Dr. Macharia’s team will include Peter Ngure, Manager, Advocacy, Accountability and Partnerships and Alex Omari, Country Engagement Officer (East Africa). They will soon be joined by a Communications Officer, a Youth Partnerships Officer, a Country Engagement Officer (Southern Africa), and a Senior Advisor for Emergency Preparedness and Resilience, who will be based in Nairobi but part of the global partnership support team.

The FP2030 structure is an evolution from the FP2020 model, with a secretariat based in Washington, DC. The new model, a global support network with five regional hubs, is designed to foster greater day-to-day collaboration among and support for governments, donors, inter- and non-governmental organizations and private sector partners who make up the partnership, as well as ensuring that the partnership agenda is set by partners themselves.

FP2030 Executive Director Dr. Samukeliso Dube welcomed Dr. Macharia to the FP2030 team:

“Dr. Macharia’s extensive experience with global and regional networks of global health stakeholders make her an excellent leader for deepening FP2030’s presence in East and Southern Africa. She is well known, deeply respected and she herself is committed to the potential of the FP2030 partnership to advance family planning in order to ensure that adolescents and women and men have the resources they need to build strong and healthy lives.”

For Dr. Macharia the potential and possibility of the FP2030 partnership are driven by adolescents and youth in the region:

“The young people in East and Southern Africa who form the majority of the population are shaping the future of the continent with their energy. It is crucial that barriers to their advancement are removed by understanding their context and the structures and systems that facilitate their success. One important way to do that is to ensure that they have access to reproductive health services including family planning and that they can enjoy the right to make decisions about their health.”

FP2030 is currently hiring staff for the North, West and Central Africa Hub and looks forward to making those announcements in the near future.