Reproductive justice for people on the move within the Global South

The concept of Reproductive Justice emerged in the United States through the critical and pragmatic mobilisation of women of colour who sought to improve the reproductive health and rights of women facing discrimination based on class, gender, and race. Advocates for Reproductive Justice drew attention to the fact that maternal and infant mortality and morbidity rates are disproportionately high among women of colour.

Similar patterns have been observed in vulnerable populations worldwide. European colonialism, enduring global power asymmetries, and contemporary capitalist economies perpetuate inequalities based on class, gender, and race, disproportionately affecting women who belong to specific social groups depending on their geographical location.

Reproductive oppression and inequality must therefore be linked to the concept of coloniality, including in the context of involuntary population movements. While the Global South hosts 76% of the world’s forcibly displaced persons, scholarship remains heavily skewed toward North-bound migration.

In 2024, Africa alone accounted for close to 50% of the global internally displaced persons. The African continent remains the epicentre of this displacement, necessitating a localised Reproductive Justice (RJ) framework.

This panel aims to explore the heuristic value of the concepts of class, gender and race applied to migrant people (internally displaced, refugees) in African contexts, particularly when analysing inequities in access to and provision of reproductive care. Bringing together researchers speaking from diverse positionalities and situated in different historical and geographical contexts, the panel seeks to de-center Eurocentric migration narratives by theorising reproductive agency within the Global South.

PANEL

Adrian Jjuuko
Makerere University

Irene Maffi
University of Lausanne

Satang Nabaneh
University of Dayton/University of Pretoria

Liv Tønnessen
Chr. Michelsen Institute