A clear vision and a bold plan
Within a generation, we can create a world where women with fistula receive healing in a matter of days, not years.
In the world that we envision, women will be able to flourish in their communities instead of languishing in the shadows. We call this vision In It to End It. Our five-year strategic plan will accelerate progress toward this vision.
Underpinning our plan is a dual strategy that we’ve honed over more than a decade.
We partner with local community organizations, hospitals, and surgical teams to identify and treat women with fistula and perineal tears. We work with each partner not only to ensure delivery of high-quality care, but also to provide fistula care services that may include healthcare provider training, patient outreach, and support for fistula survivors’ reintegration into society.
We build countrywide treatment networks that work through our partners to integrate outreach, training, treatment, and reintegration services. We design these networks with the goal of connecting all women in all parts of a country with timely, high-quality care. The goal of each FFTN is to reduce and ultimately eliminate the wait for treatment.
Update on our strategic plan progress
In 2023, we unveiled a five-year strategic plan with unprecedented growth goals. Today, we are on track to exceed those goals, helping more women receive the surgeries they so desperately need and building in-country capacity for sustainable growth far into the future.
Philanthropist Mackenzie Scott helped kickstart our ambitious plan with an extraordinary $15 million gift. Rather than building reserves, we chose to immediately deploy those funds to the field, demonstrating measurable impact at scale and inspiring even more donors to join our mission along the way.
The past three years have proven that our global network can dramatically increase life-changing surgeries when resources allow. Our partners consistently exceed ambitious targets, proving they can heal even more women. But with up to one million women across Africa and Asia living with childbirth injuries that cause incontinence, our work is far from over.
Over 20 years, we’ve funded more than 125,000 life-changing surgeries—yet for every woman we’ve healed, ten more are still waiting in isolation, abandoned by their families, and unable to work or participate in their communities. With our proven capacity to scale and such devastating unmet need, we need your help to ensure that no woman is left behind.
Pam LowneyTo some, ending fistula—with its deep roots in poverty and gender inequality—may seem daunting. But I’ve seen what makes Fistula Foundation so effective: our laser focus on repair surgery, our close partnerships with local surgeons, our results-driven culture, and our unwavering integrity. These are the strengths that will carry us forward—until the work is done.
About the plan
For information about obstetric fistula and how we work, view our FAQs.
From 2023 to 2027, Fistula Foundation will expand the provision of life-transforming surgeries in more than 20 countries, while also building the infrastructure needed to make the scourge of fistula a relic of the past. Over the course of the five-year plan, the Foundation will achieve three key impact goals: 80,000 surgeries; more than 40 new Fistula Foundation Partners; five new Fistula Foundation Treatment Networks.
Specifically, Fistula Foundation will:
- Provide 80,000 surgeries to women with childbirth injuries such as fistula.
- Add more than 40 surgery and outreach providers to our global network of partners.
- Create five new treatment networks in countries marked by high unmet need.
- Build capacity for sustainable growth by training surgeons and empowering local leaders.
To achieve our impact goals, the Foundation will leverage a dual strategy that we have honed over the past decade.
Fistula Foundation Partners: We partner with local community organizations, hospitals, and surgical teams to identify and treat women with fistula and perineal tears. We work with each partner not only to ensure delivery of high-quality care, but also to provide fistula care services that may include healthcare provider training, patient outreach, and support for fistula survivors’ reintegration into society.
Fistula Foundation Treatment Networks (FFTNs): We build comprehensive treatment networks that work on a country-by-country basis to integrate outreach, training, and reintegration services. We design these networks with the goal of connecting all women in all parts of a country with timely, high-quality care. The goal of each FFTN is to reduce and ultimately eliminate the wait for treatment.
While both sides of the dual strategy are essential to pursuing our mission, expansion of the FFTN model to additional countries holds the greatest promise of achieving our vision to “End It”—to ensure comprehensive access to treatment that will end the suffering caused by fistula.
Leveraging insights from the experience in Kenya, we now plan to replicate this proven model in other countries at an accelerated pace.
The selection of new FFTNs will reflect criteria that we have developed over nearly a decade of experience with our treatment network model.
- Underlying need. Does the country have a known high burden of fistula?
- Provider availability. Do we have strong connections with at least three treatment providers in the country?
- Regional security. Are conditions in the country sufficiently safe and stable to allow for provision of services?
- Network potential. Would improved coordination among partners and other stakeholders improve service delivery at national scale?
- Projected impact. Would the creation of a treatment network accelerate growth in the number of surgeries that our partners can provide?
To implement this plan, including the components that cover accelerated FFTN expansion, Fistula Foundation aims to raise $110 million over the next five years. Of that sum, $75 million will come from current revenue streams and $35 million will come from new investment.
A gift from pioneering philanthropist MacKenzie Scott—a $15 million one-time donation, given without restriction—provides a robust down payment on new investment required for our plan. Current and new donors have an opportunity to extend the impact that we can achieve through this plan even further.
Our investment plan thus breaks down as follows:
- $15 million. We regard the gift from Ms. Scott as a catalyst for further investment in our five-year plan.
- $75 million. We expect to raise about $15 million per year from current fundraising operations.
- $20 million. We aim to generate funding from new sources to support our ambitious goals.