Jeanne Bédé’s presentation for ICRH (International Centre for Reproductive Health) staff is proof that internship opportunities at ANSER offer an avenue for postgraduate students’ academic growth and industry exposure.

Today,  ANSER secretariat intern Jeanne Bédé presented the activities she has been carrying out at ANSER since March 2022. The ANSER network aims at bridging the gap between researchers and policymakers, therefore giving Jeanne a great opportunity to work on various activities with researchers and policymakers to promote evidence-based policies, and other initiatives to develop societal outreach. During her presentation, Jeanne illuminated the Advocacy toolkit for SRHR researchers that she, with the help of other ANSER members has been developing and intends to finish in July 2022. The toolkit is a step-by-step method to guide the researchers on setting their advocacy strategies. Jeanne has also assisted the Belgian Medical Students Association (BeMSA) and ANSER secretariat in planning for the upcoming summer school to be held from the 3rd until the 14th of July 2022. The summer school will cover two subjects, ‘Health & Globalization’ and ‘Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights, where Jeanne has enrolled to participate. She is currently assisting in planning for the upcoming ANSER webinar on 'Impact of COVID-19 restriction measures on SRHR in Africa' to be held on 21 June 2022 at 10am CET/11am EAT.

Jeanne was proud to report a highlight in her career; a publication she worked on during her internship stay, working closely with Emilie Peeters & Eliza Vanlerberghe. The publication is a Policy Paper titled “Ensuring Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Ukrainian Refugees in host countries”. The policy paper has already been quoted at the Belgian Parliament and plans are underway to present it at a Parliamentary Conference in Spain in September 2022.

There is no stopping for Jeanne, who aims at specializing in policy translation. Meanwhile, she is using all the tools that ANSER has to offer to enable her achieve this.

Dr. Joyce Omwoha (Technical University of Kenya)