At the United Nations Headquarters in New York in April, governments renewed their commitment and resolve to accelerate the implementation of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Plan of Action, whose principles are embedded in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including a commitment to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health services and promote reproductive rights.
Enormous progress has been made over the past three decades. Since 1990, the number of women using modern contraception has doubled. Since 2000, maternal mortality has fallen by 34 percent. By 2022, an estimated 20.8 million deaths globally will have been averted due to access to HIV treatment. However, this progress has stalled and, in some cases, been reversed recently. Looking forward, the prospects for continued progress are by no means assured. The ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing protracted conflict, climate change, widening inequalities, and deepening polarization are all undermining access to quality essential health services. These setbacks call for urgent action.
Women and girls are disproportionately affected by these challenges and suffer violations of their fundamental human rights – their right to make informed decisions and exercise full bodily autonomy free from coercion, violence and discrimination. Equitable and sustainable access to human rights-based sexual and reproductive health interventions and information remains out of reach for many, particularly marginalized women, adolescent girls and those living in humanitarian crises and conflict zones. Recent data show that more than half of women of reproductive age are unable to make informed decisions about whether and when to become pregnant, and many women still lack the autonomy and agency to fully exercise their reproductive rights.
On World Population Day, UN agencies are mandated to promote health and rights for all, ensuring that no one is left behind. We call on the international community, including governments, donors, civil society organizations and the private sector, to strengthen access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services as part of universal health coverage delivered through resilient health systems, including at the primary health care level. We stress the need to implement evidence-based normative guidance to strengthen access to affordable, quality, rights-based care. Ensuring acceptable services for all requires efforts to eliminate stigma and discrimination and dismantle harmful social and gender norms.
We also call for accelerating access to comprehensive sexuality education and strengthening efforts across social sectors, including education and gender, to improve the health and well-being of girls and women throughout their lives. Promoting comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights is not only the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do. Investing in women’s and girls’ reproductive rights and agency, and expanding access to services, is proven to deliver remarkable outcomes, including the social well-being, economic prosperity and peace that our world desperately needs. Additional funding from all sources – domestic and international, public and private – is essential to produce long-term positive outcomes for women and girls.
We must also urgently support growing efforts to empower young people, women and communities to speak up about sexual and reproductive health issues and to design and deliver solutions that respond to their needs and the realities of a changing world, particularly where climate change impacts on sexual and reproductive health and rights. Inclusive, bottom-up approaches to designing and delivering health interventions with and for communities can yield more sustainable outcomes and reach the most marginalized.
We call on the public and private sectors to work together to explore cutting-edge technologies such as telehealth, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and predictive modeling to close geospatial divides and expand access to critical services, especially in remote and underserved areas. At the same time, we call on innovators to address the risks inherent in these new technologies, including gender disparities in access, gender-based violence that technology facilitates, and systemic bias built into technology design.
Finally, we call on governments, local communities, civil society organizations and the private sector to come together to prioritize universal access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health in a way that advances gender equality and promotes the full realization of human rights, in line with the groundbreaking vision of the ICPD Programme of Action. Our call is for more than promises and business as usual; it is a call to collaborate and innovate to ensure that everyone realizes their right to health, dignity and security. As we look ahead to the UN General Assembly’s Future Summit in September, now is the time for bold and decisive action to pave the way for a more just, equal and sustainable world for all.
Thirty years ago in Cairo, 179 governments adopted the landmark Plan of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, a framework that recognizes sexual and reproductive health, reproductive rights, and the empowerment of women and girls as fundamental pillars of sustainable development. As UN agencies, we are united in our commitment to promoting comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights, which are essential to everyone’s right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and are crucial to achieving gender equality.
