An Introduction
The Safe Abortion Advocacy Initiative- A Global South Engagement (SAIGE) is a platform for Global South advocates, activists, academics and services providers committed towards realizing safe abortion as a human right.
Launched in 2018 and currently comprises 6 civil society organizations committed to realizing the right to safe abortion for all women through strategic interventions that recognize abortion as rights issue. SAIGE grew organically through deliberations and discussions with organizations working on promoting access to safe abortion. Governments in Global South are growing increasingly hostile to many dimensions of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and particularly abortion with many dismissing it as “western ideology”. Need were felt for a common platform and to move from a regionally focused approach towards creating south-south collaboration.


National level SAIGE meeting in Bangladesh

Keynote address by ARROW at the ICPD +25 Summit side-event "Safe Abortion in Health Systems: Regional challenges, progress and accelerators"

SAIGE partners ARROW and RHAC at CEDAW 74 for Cambodia's CEDAW review
Why SAIGE?
Unsafe abortion is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality. Worldwide an estimate 68,000 women die of unsafe abortion each year. Despite advances in medical sciences, technology and evidence women continue to suffer and die due to lack of access to safe abortion services. Unsafe abortion incidences are highest in developing regions. Around 25 million unsafe abortions were estimated to have taken worldwide each year, almost all in developing countries.
The unwillingness of governments to approach abortion holistically through an integrated health and rights approach leave women around the world vulnerable to unsafe abortions. The path toward safer abortion is clear – expand access to safe abortion so women and girls won’t have to risk their health by resorting to unsafe methods. Unfortunately well-organized and resourced opposition groups and conservative political factions within governments who equate abortion with immorality and/or as “western ideology” very often drown the clarity of this message.
In order to effectively challenge persistent stigma within the complex cultural and religious context this issue sits within, advocates in the region need solidarity with other Global South voices who and are trying to push through similar barriers for greater access of safe abortion in their respective countries.
Our Vision
Through research and evidence generation SAIGE aspires to create a knowledge base for its partners and facilitate evidence based advocacy and advocacy at the national, regional and global level.
SAIGE aims to be platform to mobilize support for members in times of need while also providing a network where members can share knowledge and expertise toward advancing access to safe abortion by using successes from other and tailoring it for their own contexts.
Together, SAIGE aspires to shape discourse at the national, regional and global level through its collective experience on working on the right to safe abortion and its effects on women’s lived realities.
Our Mission
1. Research and evidence generation thus bridging data gap in safe abortion advocacy in the Global South
2. Movement building through a cross regional and cross movements/ issues approach to safe abortion advocacy embedded in a reproductive justice framework
3. Building capacity of partners and members and creating a space of shared learning.