Thirty years after the Beijing Declaration, PS Kenya, along with other policy makers, development partners, civil society, and thought leaders, convened at the #NXTHERSummit 2025, hosted by FP2030 and Nation Media Group, to reflect on a shared vision: a future where women an girls everywhere can live with dignity, equality, and opportunity. It was a moment not only to take stock, but to ask, what must we do differently to ensure that promises made become lived realities?
For us at PS Kenya, this conversation is more than historical; it is urgent, it is present, and it is Kenyan. The unfinished agenda of Beijing continues to shape our mission to accelerate positive health outcomes by leveraging partnerships, technology, and expertise. Because we know that the well-being of women and girls is at the very heart of a healthier, more equitable Kenya.
At the heart of the Summit was the recognition that women’s health is not an afterthought, but a foundation of empowerment and a driver of development. When women and girls can access quality, equitable, and inclusive sexual and reproductive health services, they are better positioned to pursue education, grow their economic potential, and take up leadership roles in decision-making spaces.
Through our Reproductive Health Program, we see every day what it means to turn commitments into action. The Accelerate Program funded by the Embassy of Denmark in Kenya, pushes us toward a future where preventable maternal deaths, unmet need for family planning, and gender-based violence are no longer barriers to women’s lives and choices. It is about building systems where care is proactive, dignified, and accessible to every woman, everywhere.
The Binti Shupavu program, funded by the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, embodies another truth: adolescence is not a waiting room for adulthood but a critical stage for building agency, voice, and opportunity. In the communities where this program is present, we see girls moving from the margins to the center, equipped to make informed choices, advocate for their rights, and carve out pathways to brighter futures.
The conversations at #NXTHERSummit 2025 reminded us that while challenges remain, progress is real and possibilities are within reach. Barriers can and must be dismantled, but doing so requires urgency, political commitment, and innovative partnerships.
Looking ahead, our vision is clear. If we act boldly now, then by the time the world marks 40 years since Beijing, Kenya’s story can be one of transformation: a nation where every girl grows up with equal opportunities, every woman can access the care she deserves, and every community recognizes equality as the foundation for development.
Our message is one of optimism and resolve: breaking barriers is not only possible but necessary. And when women and girls thrive, so does Kenya.
