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“We have many challenges but at the same time we have a lot of strength”, says Maria Antonieta Alcalde Castro, the new Director General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). Speaking to The Lancet before taking up her 4-year term on March 1, 2026, she says, “I want IPPF to remain a trusted partner and provider of high quality sexual and reproductive health [SRH] services, especially for those who are underserved, continue to be unapologetically a global voice for bodily autonomy, gender justice, human rights as a whole, and to share that power.”
