About Us

Heather Barclay

Chair

Heather has over twenty years of experience working in gender equality, social justice and human rights but her passion for a fairer world has driven her from a young age. Throughout her career, working in the UK and internationally, she has supported change through advocating for legislative reform, policy development, and the setting of global norms in multilateral systems. Never one to shy away from difficult issues, stints at the International Planned Parenthood Federation and Girls Not Brides have deepened her commitment to ensuring that every person, everywhere has the final say over their bodies and lives.  She brings to Ipas deep systems experience, including as an independent consultant guiding organizations in defining their core values and strengthening their governance, strategies, and program designs.

Annika Malmborg, Sweden

Treasurer

Annika Malmborg is currently director of the International Department at RFSU – Sexual and Reproductive Rights for All (the Swedish member association of IPPF). Annika has over 30 years experience of working with human rights within the civil society sector, with 15 years in management positions at Save the Children, Plan International and now RFSU. Her experience ranges from heading work on global policy and civil society engagement to resource mobilisation and grant management. Annika has been president of the board of the Swedish NGO platform Concord, as well as represented as an independent expert on the advisory board of AmplifyChange.

Kathryn Andersen, USA

Dr. Andersen sets Ipas’s strategic technical direction and research agenda in support of the organizational strategic plan and mission. She leads Ipas’s work to understand and advance key issues in abortion and contraception care; such as increasing evidence for women’s self-use of medical abortion, measuring abortion quality, as well as abortion care for women experiencing gender-based violence and women in humanitarian settings. Her teams develop and implement strategies that build evidence to strengthen Ipas’s impact and ultimately, to increase women’s and girls’ access to safe abortion.

During her 14-year tenure at Ipas, Dr. Andersen previously managed significant research activities at Ipas and provided technical support and guidance to researchers across the organization. She has extensive experience in research, monitoring and evaluation with Ipas programs across south Asia and Africa. She also serves as an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and as Consulting Editor for Research Methods for the Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health.

Nicolette van Duursen, The Netherlands

Board member and Director Ipas Europe

Nicolette van Duursen  has 25 years’ experience as a Technical Advisor and Country and Regional Director in Africa and South Asia, in particular in Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, DRC, India, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe.

She has built and led regional and country teams to develop, plan and implement programs, oversaw the development and implementation of region-specific SRHR strategic plans in Southern Africa, Francophone Africa and the Sahel and generated new funding to secure programme expansion, in particular for innovative family planning and safe abortion programmes. For Ipas, she built the Francophone Africa program and has been leading the establishment of Ipas in Europe since 2019.

She has developed an in-depth understanding of the complex environment in which people make health and livelihoods decisions and how to focus resources where they will have the greatest impact. She has also built strong partnerships with local governments, international donors, and implementing partners and works closely with UN agencies, and government donors as well as foundations and various philanthropists.

Read Stichting Ipas Europe’s Policy Plan