Sex og Politikk (IPPF Norway) is a non-profit and politically independent member-based organisation that works to strengthen and promote sexual and reproductive health and rights in Norway and internationally.
Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are about deciding if and when one wants children, about having access to information, as well as access to safe, modern and affordable contraception, about the right to safe and legal abortion and the right to act on one owns’ sexuality, without persecution or discrimination.
We at Sex og Politikk believe that all people should be given access to sexual and reproductive health care services and rights, regardless of their economic, social and geographical position. Our goal is to preserve and protect the rights we already have, and further to fight to develop and strengthen sexual and reproductive rights.
Sex og Politikk was founded in 1969 under the name The Norwegian Association for Family Planning. The name was changed to The Norwegian Association for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (NSRR) in 1994, and to the current name Sex og Politikk in 2009. Since its foundation, the association has worked exclusively with SRHR, and has held a proactive role in the work to promote abortion on demand, high-quality sexual education, contraceptive education and access to safe contraception in Norway. Sex og Politikk is the Norwegian member association of International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), which is the largest federation for SRHR in the world, with national organisations in more than 150 countries in addition to Norway. Sex og Politikk works closely with many of our sister organisations in the IPPF.
Sex og Politikk works for the development of better health care services and to safeguard rights linked to sexuality and reproductive health globally. This is an important field for strengthening women’s and girl’s rights and for working for human rights, gender equality and poverty reduction. Political advocacy and informational events focusing on SRHR with the Global South perspective is therefore essential to our work. We work to highlight the importance of SRHR in the development policy work, in collaboration with and with support from Countdown 2030 Europe, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norad, FOKUS, UNFPA and several other organisations, including our sister organizations in Norway’s focus countries for development assistance.
In Norway, we work to inform the general public about the importance of sexual and reproductive health and rights, and to highlight the challenges many people have when it comes to this controversial field. Since 2010, Sex og Politikk has run a nationwide sexuality education campaign Uke 6. Uke 6 offers schools free educational programs and aims to contribute to a strengthened education about sexuality in school. Together with the Cyprus Family Planning Association, we have in the period 2014–16 developed sexuality education materials for teenagers in Cyprus. The name of the project is I’M SET (Integrated Mandatory Sexuality Education for Teenagers).
Sex og Politikk is member of several national and international networks and collaborates with a number of national organisations in Norway and internationally. Beyond IPPF, our most important international partner is Countdown 2030 Europe – a consortium of 18 SRHR organisations working for sexual and reproductive health and rights.
