MSI Reproductive Choices: The story behind the new name

BARCELONA — This week, Marie Stopes International announced it would change its name to MSI Reproductive Choices, breaking the connection with the 20th-century women’s rights campaigner and eugenicist whose name it bears. The organization’s name had been a topic of conversation for some time before the board approved a potential change last November, explained CEO Simon Cooke, with internal conversations then kicking off at the start of this year. While the onset of the pandemic threatened to delay the transition, the emergence of the Black Lives Matter protests later in the year spurred it forward. With the organization also embarking on its next 10-year strategy, Cooke said it was about looking forward, not back. “[MSI Reproductive Choices] was by far the best descriptor and the most popular option ... it does what it says on the tin.” --— Simon Cooke, CEO, MSI Reproductive Choices “The organization thinks it's the right time, it's appropriate to move forwards, and not so much to sort of focus on historical revisionism or criticizing the past, but more to have a complete refresh and get everybody focused on the next 10 years,” he said. It is not the only organization to rethink its name amid conversations around racial inequality this year, with big-name brands such as Uncle Ben’s rice and institutions including the prestigious Cass Business School in London also changing their names and logos. The new name was chosen following a relatively short consultation process with internal as well as a few external stakeholders, Cooke said. While it has been well-received internally, Cooke expects questions as to why the organization hasn’t moved further from the original name and will still use the MSI acronym. It will also retain the color scheme and blue door logo of its former name. In part, that is because it already has high levels of recognition, Cooke said. “[MSI] is what we call ourselves, frankly, and what many of our stakeholders and donors refer to us as,” he said. MSI Reproductive Choices “was by far the best descriptor and the most popular option ... it does what it says on the tin.” It also avoids the potentially expensive and “inappropriate” costs of rebranding, Cooke noted. Amid a pandemic, keeping organizational costs and service disruption to a minimum were a priority. The new name won’t launch immediately across the organization's country programs and instead will be rolled out in a “fairly evolutionary way” over the next couple of years in order to have a “very low impact” on partners in-country, he said. According to Cooke, the original name rarely caused any issues either from donors or in program countries, largely since many people know Stopes for her pioneering work in family planning rather than for her more controversial views. But it still invited questions around the organization's link to Stopes, who was not directly involved in the foundation of the organization. The new name “gives us an opportunity to go out and talk about ourselves, what we do in a way that doesn’t require us to explain the name,” he said. This is important because 40% of women and girls will still lack access to contraceptives by the year 2030. “We just want to put all our energy and focus into making sure we were closing that gap and engaging our donors to support us along that journey,” he said.