Ensuring that everyone has the power to make their own decisions about their body, health and future is fundamental to achieving gender equality. An important key to fully realizing this vision: nuanced, human rights-based data that capture the many dimensions of empowerment and agency.

The world is facing a crisis of reproductive agency, the UNFPA State of World Population 2025 report shows. In every country studied, regardless of its total fertility rate, the most consequential reproductive decision a person can make – whether, when and with whom to have a child – is being undermined, and in some cases outright denied. But traditional metrics do not fully capture the complex ecosystem constraining or enabling agency. To address this gap and accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, UNFPA has established the Technical Advisory Group on Measuring Sexual and Reproductive Agency. 

The mission

The advisory group is mandated to develop a robust, comprehensive and globally relevant framework for measuring sexual and reproductive agency. This work is focused on three key pillars:

• Developing new methodologies: Refining the definition of sexual and reproductive agency and creating inclusive measurement tools and indicators that reflect the needs of diverse populations, including adolescents, youth and LGBTQIA+ individuals.
• Strengthening data and analysis: Working to enhance global capacity for data collection and analysis to support the development of evidence-based programmes and policies.
• Influencing global policy: Fostering expert collaboration and sharing research to influence the post-2030 global agenda and increase the understanding and prioritization of sexual and reproductive agency.

The members

Chaired by UNFPA, the advisory group is a consortium of 35 world-leading experts from academia, civil society and multilateral agencies, all committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights.

• Alan Jarandilla Nunez, Executive Director of the International Youth Alliance for Family Planning
• Alicia Ely Yamin, Lecturer on Law and Director, Global Health and Rights Project, Petrie-Flom Center, Harvard Law School/ Adjunct Senior Lecturer on Health Policy and Management, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health/ Senior Adviser on Human Rights and Health Policy, Partners in Health
• Anita Raj, Executive Director of Newcomb Institute and Professor of Public Health at Tulane University
• Anna Philpott, Founder and Co-Director - The Pleasure Project
• Antra Bhatt, Statistics Specialist, Research and Data Section, UN Women
• Aparna Jain, Senior Program Manager - Gates Foundation
• Arushi Singh, Senior Programme Specialist - UNESCO
• Ayman Abdelmohsen, Chief of the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Branch - UNFPA 
• Carolin Beck, Policy Analyst - Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development 
• Caroline Moreau, Professor - Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
• Chibwe Lwamba, Statistics and Monitoring Specialist - UNICEF New York DAPM
• Cicely Alice Marston, Professor of Public Health - University of Oxford 
• Dr. Abby Girard, Associate Professor - University of Minnesota Medical School
• Dr. Jenny Cresswell, Scientist - World Health Organization
• Dr. Onikepe Owolabi, Vice President of International Research - Guttmacher Institute
• Elizabeth Sully, Principal Research Scientist - Guttmacher Institute
• Engelbert Bain Luchuo, Head of International Programs - African Population and Health Research Center
• Habarugira Venant, Independent Consultant
• Ilene Speizer, Professor - Gillings School of Global Public Health
• Inviolata Nafula Wanyama, Head of Marketing, Evidence and Impact - MSI Reproductive Choices Kenya
• Julia Bunting, Programme Division Director - UNFPA 
• Jyoti KC, Director - National Statistics Office, Nepal
• Kerry MacQuarrie, Senior Advisor for Research and Analysis - The Demographic and Health Surveys Program
• Kristen Wares, Public Health Advisor 
• Laura Ferguson, Associate Professor - University of Southern California
• Leyla Sharafi, Chief of the Gender, Human Rights and Inclusion Branch - UNFPA 
• Lotus McDougal, Director of Gender, Data and Metrics - Center on Gender Equity and Health, UC San Diego
• Luciene Aparecida Ferreira de Barros Longo, Demographer - The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics 
• Miché Muselefu Kamasi, National Expert, National Statistics Institute, DRC
• Monika Mynarska, Associate Professor, Institute of Psychology, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw
• Norhan Bader, SRHR Program Manager - Center for Development Services [CDS MENA]
• Paola Montenegro, Research Director - Profamilia
• Priscilla Idele, Chief of the Data and Analytics Branch - UNFPA 
• Sivananthi Thanenthiran, Executive Director, ARROW
• Solly Molayi, Acting Deputy Director General of Population and Social Statistics at Statistics South Africa
• Stefanie Wallach, Performance, Learning and Impact Director - IPPF 
• Tsakadze Vasil, Head of Social Statistics Department - National Statistics Office of Georgia
• Ximena Quintero, National Autonomous University of Mexico

The strategic plan

The group is actively developing a comprehensive conceptual framework and a core set of indicators for pilot testing. 

This work and the resultant tools and evidence will provide partners with the critical means to better track progress, target investments, measure the true impact of programming and make a more powerful, evidence-based case for sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender equality, at both the country level and on the global stage.

Updated 11 December 2025