The project
Global access to (in)fertility care
The Walking Egg believes that fertility care is a neglected aspect of family planning in many countries worldwide. Right from the start in 2010, we opted for a multidisciplinary and global approach to realise affordable and accessible infertility programmes.
In corporation with ESHRE (European Society of Human reproduction and Embryology) and WHO (World Health Organisation), we gather medical, social and economical scientists and experts along with artists to discuss and work together towards our goal.
We aim to strengthen fertility care through innovation and research, advocacy and networking, training and capacity building, and service delivery.
Research and innovation
There's a need for research on social, cultural, ethical, religious and juridical aspects of infertility in resourcepoor countries. What are pathways to healthcare and treatment access? What are the financial and economical consequences of infertility treatment compared to the actual situation? We also aim to initiate and expand an international network of social science research (in broad sense) in these fields.
In order to make fertility care more affordable in developing countries, effective, cheap and safe stimulation schemes for intrauterine insemination (IUI) and in-vitro fertilization (IVF) need to be established. A review of the literature and feasibility studies have to be performed to examine the value of these protocols in resource-poor settings. A major challenge is to reduce costs of laboratory procedures, namely fertilization and culture of eggs and embryos. Different options and approaches have been developed or are presently being field-tested with very promising results.
Advocacy and networking
Global access to fertility care can only be implemented and sustained if it is supported by local policy makers and the international community. Many international organizations have already expressed their desire to collaborate including WHO, ESHRE and ISMAAR (International Society for Mild Approaches to Assisted Reproduction). We will also need to the media, patient organizations and interested politicians to change the existing moral and socio-cultural beliefs that are isolating and ostracizing infertile couples.
Training and capacity building
Regular training courses on the diagnosis and prevention of infertility in developing countries have to be organized including endoscopic surgery, the clinical aspects of IUI and IVF and the laboratory aspects of IVF/ICSI. Training, quality control, regular audit and systems of accreditation and registration should be implemented in order to maintain appropriate standards of care.
Service delivery
The ultimate aim is to establish high-quality and affordable fertility services wherever needed. Diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and protocols should be affordable, effective, safe and standardized. Ideally, infertility management should be integrated into sexual and reproductive health care programmes.
What is The Walking Egg?
In March 2010, The Walking Egg non-profit organization was founded by four members: Annie Vereecken, Rudi Campo, Willem Ombelet and Koen Vanmechelen.
What is the history of The Walking Egg?
In 1993, the international meeting for ‘Andrology in the Nineties’, held in Genk, Belgium, attracted more than 700 clinicians and scientists from more than 40 different countries, all of whom specialized in infertility. It also resulted in the meeting of artist Koen Vanmechelen and fertility specialist Willem Ombelet. Although they came from two very different domains, these domains both developed from a sense of amazement and a desire to understand human identity. The contact between the scientist and the artist resulted in an enigmatic glass egg with the legs of a chicken: ‘The Walking Egg’. Three years later, in 2000, the first issue of ‘The Walking Egg’ magazine was published. It was a unique blend of science, art and philosophy, to name but a few of its perspectives. From the start, the concept sounded like a real program: to bridge the gap between science and art and alter traditional discourse between two disciplines believed to be in opposition with each other. The next two years were spent brainstorming, working, travelling, discussing, talking and exploring. The outcome of this artistic-scientific cross-fertilization was expressed in six issues of ‘The Walking Egg magazine, an international journal which was distributed to infertility specialists worldwide. On the occasion of the opening of the fully renovated fertility department of the Genk Institute for Fertility Technology in August 2006, the artistic project ‘Born’ was exhibited. A general concept focusing on the egg, it remains on permanent display in the fertility department. In December 2007, a scientific-artistic project was set up in Arusha, Tanzania, in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro. It is an environment where climatological and hygienic conditions are not the most favorable. It represented the start of a focus on infertility and childlessness in developing countries, in cooperation with the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) Special Task Force on ‘Developing countries and infertility’.
What is the philosophy of The Walking Egg?
Creativity and beauty are the junctions where art and science meet. Early on, Koen Vanmechelen and Willem Ombelet recognized both disciplines have a complementary relationship. The study of the inner world is incomplete without that of the outer. In the future they aim to organize debates between scientists, politicians, artists, philosophers, etc. on topics associated with human reproduction, and more specifically, on the topic of childlessness in countries with limited resources.
Who is the Walking Egg?
Koen Vanmechelen was born in St-Truiden Belgium in 1965. He is one of the most versatile thinkers of these times. He is situated at the confluence of art, science, philosophy and community.
As an eternal migrant, he travels the world in search of answers to fundamental questions concerning issues that are both timeless and acutely relevant today, such as identity, diversity, globalisation and human rights. He incorporates these answers, which are always works in progress, into enigmatic artworks and projects. His quests and interdisciplinary projects encourage collaboration and the creation of awareness and movement within communities around the world. Together, they reflect on the global legacy of humanity and explore the various ways in which we choose to live and evolve together.
In 2010, he founded the non-profit organisation The Walking Egg together with Willem Ombelet and Rudi Campo. The Walking Egg NPO arose from the mutual curiosity between two fields, both of which begin with a sense of amazement and a compulsion to understand human identity: art and the medical sciences, specifically the field of fertility. As well as creating an illustrated magazine (The Walking Egg), this crossover between the fertility project led to an artistic-scientific project in Arusha, Tanzania. This marked the beginning of a focus on (in)fertility in developing countries.
In 2010, Koen received an honorary doctorate from the University of Hasselt, and in 2013 he won the prestigious Golden Nica Hybrid Art Award in Linz and the Global Artist Award in Venice. He has presented his work on almost every continent, including at the Uffizi Gallery (Florence), the V&A Museum (London), the ZKM (Karlsruhe) and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana (Cuba). He has made regular appearances at the Venice Biennale and his work has also been exhibited at the Moscow, Havana, Dakar and Poznań biennials, the Guangzhou triennial, the Shanghai World Expo 2010, Manifesta 9 and dOCUMENTA (13). A highly sought-after speaker, he has addressed the World Economic Forum (2008) and various TED conferences.
Willem Ombelet is a renowned Belgian gynecologist and infertility specialist, born in Leuven in 1954. He graduated in medicine (MD) from the University of Leuven in 1979 and received his PhD in 1998, focusing on sperm morphology and semen quality in diagnosing subfertility. He completed his training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Bruges and Pretoria (South Africa).
He is the founder of the Genk Institute for Fertility Technology and was chairman of eight ‘Andrology in the Nineties’-meetings.
He became the Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the ZOL Hospitals in Genk in 1999.
Willem Ombelet has been the President of the Flemish and Belgian Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology from 2001 until 2004.
He was also a board member of the Belgian College of Reproductive Medicine from 1999 until 2007 and a board member of the Belgian Society of Reproductive Medicine (BSRM) from 2008 until 2014.
In 2009 he founded and became the “Editor in Chief” of the International scientific journal “Facts, Views &Vision in ObGyn”, a PubMed cited Journal and since 2019 the Official Scientific Journal of the ESGE (European Society for Endoscopic Surgery).
He was a consultant and Associate Professor at the Universities of Hasselt, Ghent and Antwerp. He authored more than 180 international peer-reviewed articles and got 2 international awards. He is the (co-)editor of 17 books.
In 2010 Willem Ombelet founded The Walking Egg non-profit organization (npo) together with Koen Vanmechelen (artist) and Dr Rudi Campo. This npo strives to implement accessible infertility programmes in resource-poor countries.
Willem Ombelet was the coordinator of the ESHRE (European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology) Special Task Force on “Developing countries and infertility” from 2006 until 2014. Dr Ombelet was the chairman of the ESHRE Special Interest Groups from 2021 until 2023.
Willem Ombelet has profoundly shaped reproductive medicine — improving common procedures like IUI, promoting safe single embryo transfers, and working tirelessly to democratize access to fertility treatments globally, especially in developing regions.
Dr Rudi Campo is a distinguished Belgian fertility specialist and internationally recognised hysteroscopic surgeon, based at the LIFE Expert Centre in Leuven.
He earned his MD magna cum laude from KU Leuven in 1983, subsequently completing board certification in obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Düsseldorf.
Since 1990, he has served as clinical director of the Leuven Institute for Fertility and Embryology (LIFE), supervising both IVF laboratory operations and outpatient reproductive surgery. From 2007 until 2022, he was also a consultant in endoscopic surgery and IVF at Genk’s ZOL Hospial.
Dr. Campo specialises in hysteroscopic techniques, including uterine reconstruction and diagnostic hysteroscopy. He developed an innovative algorithm combining MRI, 3D ultrasound and outpatient hysteroscopy to better predict IVF implantation success—a method researched for over 15 years.
As a trained laparoscopist and one of the internationally recognised hysteroscopic surgeons with extensive experience in uterine reconstructive surgery and hysteroscopic operative myometrial exploration, he can contribute to the development of a full range of endoscopic techniques.
He is Past President of the European Society for Gynaecological Endoscopy (ESGE) and has been honoured with both ESGE Honorary Membership and Germany’s “Golden Needle” lifetime achievement award.
He was an executive board member of the European Board & College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (EBCOG) until 2024, and is the co-founder of the European Academy of Gynaecological Surgery (now the MIS Academy Europe), which promotes training and standardisation in endoscopic surgery.
He has authored over 160 scientific publications and his recent studies have focused on low-cost IVF systems, hysteroscopic surgery and training in reproductive medicine.
In summary, Dr Campo has made a profound impact on fertility treatment through surgical innovation, education and leadership, helping countless patients with implantation issues to achieve successful pregnancies. He has made a substantial contribution to endoscopic training and education worldwide.
Nathalie Dhont was born in Belgium in 1971. She studied medicine in Ghent, after which she completed postgraduate training to become a gynaecologist, spending additional years training in the UK and the Netherlands.
She then lived and worked in sub-Saharan Africa for eight years, first in Malawi and then in Rwanda for almost seven years. During this time, she worked as a gynaecologist and technical advisor for several international organisations, including Luxembourg Bilateral Cooperation, EGPAF and Projet Ubuzima. While in Rwanda, she established a research project in collaboration with Ghent University's International Centre for Reproductive Health, the international NGO Projet Ubuzima, and the Kigali University Teaching Hospital. This project aimed to investigate the clinical, epidemiological, and socio-cultural aspects of infertility in countries with limited resources. The findings were published in numerous articles and culminated in a PhD thesis presented at Ghent University in April 2011. Her supervisor was Marleen Temmerman.
She is currently the head of the IVF unit at ZOL hospitals in Genk. She is married and a mother of three daughters.
Jonathan Van Blerkom is a distinguished American reproductive biologist and embryologist known for his pioneering contributions to in vitro fertilization (IVF) and early embryonic development.
He is a Professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado, where he received his PhD in 1974. Since 1982 he has also been actively involved in human IVF. He performed Colorado’s first successful IVF procedure in 1982, establishing himself as a national authority on human gamete physiology.
His research focuses on the molecular organization of the oocyte, mitochondrial bioenergetics, and plasma membrane dynamics in early development—areas critical to understanding developmental competence. He focused on molecular and cellular aspects of early mammalian development including human follicles, oocytes and embryos, which have resulted in the publication of over 140 original research articles, in addition to numerous reviews and coauthored and edited books on early mammalian development, including the human.
He is the Editor-in-Chief of Zygote, an international journal dedicated to the rapid publication of original research in early embryology. He has been a member of Editorial Boards for important journals in the area of developmental biology and reproductive medicine and currently serves as Section Editor of Reproductive BioMedicine Online and Associate Editor of the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics. He is an invited speaker at numerous international conferences and symposia.
Dr. Van Blerkom developed the simplified culture system that is the centerpiece of the Walking Egg Project’s intent to provide accessible and affordable advanced infertility treatment in developing countries. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Walking Egg Foundation and continues to undertake research that will further develop the goals of this project.
In summary, Jonathan Van Blerkom has shaped modern reproductive science through groundbreaking IVF work, fundamental discoveries in gamete biology, prolific scholarly contributions, and a commitment to expanding global access to fertility care.
Dr. Nargund was born in India in 1960 and earned her MBBS at Karnatak Medical College in Hubli. She later trained at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in London.
She is a senior consultant gynaecologist and lead in reproductive medicine at St George’s Hospital NHS Trust in London, as well as the founder and medical director of CREATE Fertility and ABC IVF. She pioneered “natural” and “mild” IVF approaches aimed at reducing drug use and cost while improving patient safety.
Dr Nargund has also invented advanced ultrasound methods, such as follicular Doppler, for assessing egg quality and has published the first major study on cumulative live-birth rates from natural-cycle IVF.
Dr Nargund is the president of ISMAAR (the International Society for Mild Approaches in Assisted Reproduction) and an honorary professor at the University of Bolton.
Geeta Nargund is the founder and trustee of the Create Health Foundation, which promotes fertility education in UK schools. The foundation was first launched in 2016. Geeta is also vice-chair of the British Red Cross and director of the Walking Egg Foundation, which focuses on making IVF more affordable worldwide. In 2017, she delivered a TEDx talk on fertility education.
In 2023, she received the GG2 Leadership & Diversity Inspire Award, and has received numerous other accolades, including the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin's "Doctor of the Year" award in 2017. In 2025, she received the Metro Pride Award for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion.