The Innovation Fund is an internal funding mechanism established by IPPF to promote ground-breaking initiatives in the fields of our five strategic priorities.

The Innovation Fund encourages and supports our Member Associations to try new approaches and ideas which go far beyond their usual programme.

To facilitate innovation, the fund fosters critical thinking, experimentation, and a willingness to take risks.
In the Arab World region we are working to:

Meeting SRH needs of visually challenged people in Tunisia

In line with ATSR Strategic Plan which emphasizes that sexual and reproductive health services is a right for every human being without discrimination, the association is concerned with providing SRH information and services to groups of special needs.

There are 20,130 Visually Challenged (legally blind) Youth VCY living throughout Tunisia and they represent 13.3% of the handicapped population of the country. A number of field work activities revealed that SRH knowledge among blind youth is mostly negligible.

The association signed a “Frame work Joint Agreement” with the “National Union of Blind People of Tunisia (UNAT) under which the two parties commit themselves to improve the social and health status of the Handicapped-Blind”. UNAT is the pre-eminent organization in the country working with the blind.  

This initiative aims at increasing the access persons with physical, cognitive, or emotional disabilities have a right to sexuality education, sexual health care, and opportunities for socializing and sexual expression. 

The target beneficiaries of the project are the visually challenge youth (female and male) ages 15 to 24 at the 10 UNAT Centers nation-wide. SRH information and services will also be extended to all visually challenged young adults (up to the age of 29 year old) at the UNAT Centers.  The Volunteer Peer Educators will be selected from the visually challenged youth (female and male) ages 15 to 24 from the 10 UNAT Centers. 

Improving  women’s right to have access to safe abortion information and services in Palestine

This project aims to increase awareness of the issues surrounding unsafe abortion among women living in 19 refugee camps in the West Bank, where abortion is illegal. Some of the key strategies and activities include implementing a survey to assess the extent of unsafe abortion, conducting lobbying workshops targeting women’s organisations in the refugee camps, training a group of young female volunteers to offer a support network and conduct awareness-raising visits to women’s houses, providing counselling to women in the camps, and lobbying policy makers.

For the first time, this initiative will be presented in such a bold approach and on such a wide scale, especially in refugee camps. This will give more credibility to the work of PFPPA in the field of women's rights and SRR on this issue, as well as strengthen advocacy efforts.

Scaling up HIV prevention and Treatment in Sudan

Sudan Family Planning Association (SFPA) provides services to 295,864 clients annually. Most of SFPA clients are women at reproductive health age (15-45 years old) and many cases are of STIs. The response of governmental facilities at tertiary level of care for referral cases of management of HIV complications is very weak. Therefore, SFPA established a VCT/ ART center in Port Sudan through Global Fund funding and one VCT center in Khartoum that refers to Omdurman VCT/ART center for test confirmation and treatment if needed and follow up.

SFPA introduced the community link component through outreach sessions, within the framework of the Greater Involvement (and empowerment) of People Living with HIV (GIPA) principal.

The eligibility criteria for treatment and other official measures allow SFPA to provide such services inside its own facilities if there is suitable space, equipment and trained staff. SFPA has already such experience in Port Sudan Integrated reproductive health Center.

The purpose of this project is to scale up and increase access to ARV treatment (PMTCT-VCT-STIs ) and stigma reduction, through integrating HIV with sexual and reproductive health services for people living with HIV.(young women) (linking sexual and reproductive health to HIV/AIDS )in 3 Integrated reproductive health centers (Obied, Medani and Model clinic).