Community Engagement

Program Manager, Ipas DRC

Dr. Mike Mpoyi is an experienced medical doctor and public health professional skilled in health system strengthening, project management, and implementation with a focus on reproductive health and infectious diseases. With over 13 years’s experience in strengthening access to healthcare in Africa, notably the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Uganda, and Burundi, Dr. Mike Mpoyi has focused his work on improving access to equitable sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), with focus on establishing youth-friendly pathways to services in stable and conflict zones for vulnerable populations in low- and middle-income countries.

Dr. Mike Mpoyi is the current Senior Program Manager for Ipas in the DRC. He started his career as the Coordinator of Peer Educators in Reproductive Health for a youth health-centered national programme. In 2013, he became Area Physician Manager at Premium Health Limited before becoming Country Manager in 2014.

During three years, he provided clinical and managerial oversight, ensured accurate management of pharmaceuticals stock, managed the DRC country office and national network of 75 Premium Health clinics across the DRC. From 2016 he chaired the IPPF-DRC Provincial Board of Directors ; for two years, he led the strategic thinking on positioning the organization at the regional level. In that same year, he founded Access Care, a national non-profit health maintenance organization becoming the first Chief Executive Officer. Since 2020 he has been working as the Global Technical Advisor, at Ipas US.

Our leadership

Community Engagement

Country Director, Ipas DRC

Dr. Jean-Claude MULUNDA has been advocating for Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights and universal access to high-quality sexual and reproductive healthcare, including access to legal and safe abortion, for more than 12 years. In this way, he played an instrumental role in the Maputo Protocol domestication and Comprehensive Abortion Care Standards and Guidelines development processes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over the last six years in close collaboration with in-country partners, government officials, parliamentarians, and donors.

Dr. Mulunda is the current Country Director for Ipas in the DRC. He previously managed reproductive health projects with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Planned Parenthood Federation’s DRC affiliate.

Dr. Mulunda received medical training at the University of Kinshasa, program management certification in Israel, and fundraising certification at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

Community
Engagement

We Support We Support We Support

Ipas DRC works to build women’s awareness of sexual and reproductive health and increase community access to sexual and reproductive health services through community-based education and outreach programs.

Through the Makoki Ya Mwasi Movement, we reach youth-led, women-led, person-with-disabilities and media organizations in our community outreach and support. This movement is essential to Ipas’ community engagement strategy, which fosters national ownership, strengthens the reproductive justice movement, and improves the referral pathway.

Ipas integrated positive masculinity into the intervention model of community-based organizations to bring about a lasting change in gender norms and men’s attitudes, making them partners in the fight against discrimination and stigmatization of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, including safe abortion.

Number of Ipas grants awarded to organizations.

Number of local organizations Ipas has supported

In our collaborative work we have set up a referral network of young people involved in advocacy, community involvement and the referral of young girls and women to sexual and reproductive health services. Today, with the “positive masculinity” approach, the Mashujaa are gradually redefining gender norms in the region and specifically in the IDP camps, through dialogues with the community.

Dr. Simon Bine Mambo
Executive Director YARH-DRC (Youth Sprint Movement)

Quotes

As Mashujaa, we are not just here to provide information on sexual and reproductive health rights. We are here to listen to these women and girls who were silenced and had no one who could understand them.

Mashujaa Network Referral

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