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Paper short abstract

This paper draws on data from an ethnographic fieldwork in Ethiopia to examine how global and local power is contested in SHR showing community-led models’ promise and limits within reproductive justice debates and to argue for justice-oriented frameworks.

Paper long abstract

This paper critically engages with contemporary debates on decolonising sexual and reproductive health (SRH) by drawing on ethnographic data and praxis from grassroots interventions in Ethiopia. Building on recent scholarly calls to rethink decolonised research and methodologies in SRH that centre community engagement and power redistribution, not merely critique (e.g. community-based participatory designs and locally rooted epistemologies highlighted in recent literature (Stevens-Uninsky, 2024 and others), I argue that meaningful decolonisation must be pursued at both global and local levels of governance, funding, policy and practice.

Through ethnographic-approach fieldwork and engagement with practitioners (including teachers, health workers) and young people (adolescent girls and young women), I examine how community-led SRH models are generating evidence of effectiveness and sustainability. These models articulate reproductive justice as lived practice, challenging hierarchical, Western biomedical norms. However, I also show that idealising local initiatives alone risks obscuring structural constrains – such as poverty and inequality, bureaucratic funding architectures, administrative gatekeeping, and capacity limitations – that can impede scalability and sustainability of promising approaches.

By juxtaposing global policy dynamics with situated interventions, this paper contributes to reproductive justice literature by highlighting the necessity of integrated strategies that leverage both grassroots agency and systemic reform. This includes reframing SRH beyond development frameworks towards paradigms of sovereignty, collective wellbeing and liberation grounded in contextually embedded evidence. I argue for a balanced recognition of where community-led innovation excels and where coordinated support and resourcing are essential to realise equitable, just futures in SRH ( Stevens-Uninsky, 2024; Ross and Solinger 2017).