The Women and Children's Empowerment Network in Africa (WACENA) works at the intersection of environmental and sex education, delivering sexual and reproductive health education focused on wellbeing and human rights. With Empower to Plan support, WACENA will deliver weekly workshops in 20 schools, addressing important and life-saving topics largely left out of the Ugandan Ministry of Education's curriculum - topics such as safe abortion access, contraceptive counselling, menstrual care and gender-based violence.

To mark World Population Day in 2021, we shone a light on nine inspiring change-makers, all working in different ways to promote choice, protect our planet and empower people - especially women and girls. We'll be announcing this year's winners on 11th July. Each will receive our unique Change Champion award, and a £500 donation to the charity or cause of their choice. For now, have a look back at the amazing people we were privileged to be able to recognise and support last year.

Who really believes economies can just keep growing? Still far too many economists and politicians. We asked Brian Czech, Executive Director of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy, to explain what degrowth is, why it matters, and what a better future looks like. In his conclusion, he argues that when it comes to sustainability, nothing matters more than population - of humans.

"With high populations everything is small, people are forced to build in swamps, people are forced to do illegal mining, people look at everything as a source of income and both humans and nature are exploited." Nyombi Morris is a climate change activist from Uganda with a mission to educate and inspire young people, and one of our Choice Ambassadors. Read his blog about his story and work on our website.

In a tragic development for women's power over their own bodies, the US Supreme Court has overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade decision, which prevented states banning abortion.

Nine of the 26 states expected to introduce bans have already done so, which will have terrible consequences for the lives and freedom of countless people in the US.

At the beginning of June, Sweden hosted the Stockholm+50 conference, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. Joan Kembabazi, one of our Choice Ambassadors, attended in her capacity as a girls’ and women’s rights activist. In this guest blog, she writes about the conference and the message she brought to it.