ADD THESE DATES TO YOUR E-DIARY OR GOOGLE CALENDAR
This site is part of the Siconnects Division of Sciinov Group
This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Sciinov Group and all copyright resides with them.
ADD THESE DATES TO YOUR E-DIARY OR GOOGLE CALENDAR
HIV - UNAIDS Regional
Title:French Development Aid Matrix: Decolonizing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Representations
Gender studies have become increasingly visible in France and are now widely applied to the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) field. In contrast, decolonial perspectives remain largely absent from French strategies, research, and operational practices, despite their relevance at a time when national identity and self-representation are under intense political debate. Addressing the colonial matrix that continues to shape French institutions and external relations challenges dominant narratives of meritocracy and universalism, as well as the power dynamics linked to gender, race, and class.
From the situated perspective of a racialized, French woman from an overseas territory with nearly fifteen years of experience working on SRHR and HIV, this paper examines how colonial legacies sustain an “epistemology of ignorance.” Through mechanisms of racialization, ethnicization, and subalternity, SRHR norms and knowledge production are shaped by practices of objectification and by representations that systematically erase or marginalize certain voices. These “representations of absence” reinforce unequal power relations both within France and in its interactions with the Global South.
By questioning the universality of SRHR models and highlighting the need to decolonize unconscious frameworks, the paper calls for new ways of thinking and acting that acknowledge creolization, plural epistemologies, and the urgency of transforming knowledge and power relations.
Ange MERALLI BALLOU holds several Master's degrees in International Humanitarian and Criminal Law, International Relations, Humanitarian Project Management and MBA and UD in Gender Practices and Public Health. As a Public Health Advisor at the UNAIDS Regional Office in West, Central and Northern Africa, she supports feminist and community-based governments, IOs, NGOs and CSOs to strengthen the right / access to health services and the reduction of inequalities. Her areas of expertise revolve around sexual and reproductive rights, gender inequalities and the class, race, domination intersection in emergency and development contexts.