Giving Compass' Take:

• Victoria Milanzi, Media Monitor, Malawi Institute of Journalism under UNICEF, interviews Jess Jacobs, Maverick Collective Member about how philanthropy can help encourage young women to make choices about their reproductive health. 

• How can The Maverick Collective garner more support from the international philanthropy community? 

• Read more about the specific work that The Maverick Collective is doing for women and girls. 

Young people who choose their health decisions often grow into adults who take charge of their lives. This is how change happens. For actress, speaker and advocate Jess Jacobs, choice and change start by ensuring women and girls worldwide can access sexual and reproductive health services when and how they need. But as she shares, solutions are not a country-by-country process. What happens in one part of the globe shapes and shifts the realities in places philanthropists like Jess devote their time and resources. Jess offers insight on how the next generation of philanthropists can ignite change by starting with choice.

Victoria Milanzi: How do we examine adolescent-centered reproductive health solutions and access from a global perspective?

Jess Jacobs: A U.S. administration shift [and reinstatement of the Mexico City policy] can topple years of work and effort in an instant in countries that rely on the U.S. for reproductive health funding.

Similarly, a political change in a country in West Africa or Southeast Asia can impact the fight for access and rights, and the future of the country’s youth—all of which reverberates outward. Uncovering and applying reproductive health solutions cannot be approached as a zero-sum game.

My Maverick work in Côte d’Ivoire is innovating how young people access modern contraception. It is leaving us with lessons that we can apply to all types of advocacy and philanthropic work in the U.S. Moreover, the impact and outcomes of work in the U.S. can influence how we approach uncovering solutions in Côte d’Ivoire.

Read the full article about reproductive health by Victoria Milanzi and Jess Jacobs at PSI.