Sexual and Reproductive Health for All: 20 Years of The Global Strategy

Thirty years ago, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), kept in Cairo, Egypt, highlighted the right of all people to accomplish the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). In 2004, WHO published a reproductive health method – ratified by 191 Member States at the Fifty-seventh World Health Assembly – that enhanced the midpoint of SRHR to societies and economies (Resolution WHA57.12). These structures are grounded in gender equality and acknowledge the imperishable significance of sexual health in accomplishing health for all.

WHO scientists worked with Member States, civil society and communities throughout all areas to operationalize a Worldwide Strategy to cover the five essential pillars for improving SRHR:

– enhancing antenatal, perinatal, postpartum and newborn care

– supplying family planning services

– removing hazardous abortion

– fighting sexually sent infections (STIs).

– promoting sexual health.

Resolution WHA57.12 further notified SRHR policies and guiding documents in several regions and Member States. For example, Latin America’s 2013 Montevideo Consensus and Africa’s Maputo Plan of Action from 2016 (building upon the initial 2006 plan) both include language and concepts reinforcing and upholding SRHR.

” The international technique is the foundational policy document that centres WHO’s required for sexual and reproductive health to date,” said Dr Pascale Allotey, Director of the UN Special Programme on Human Reproduction (HRP) and WHO’s Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health. “The text stays important in contributing to assisting research study concerns and working with countries to develop beneficial resources to ensure thorough SRHR throughout the life course.”

Significant development has been made over the last twenty years within each of the five pillars, including these examples.

– The Global technique came about as the world was reeling from the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Today, the number of people acquiring HIV has actually fallen by 38% considering that 2010 alone, due in part to the Strategy’s emphasis on eliminating STIs including HIV.

– Since March 2022, 60% of WHO Member States have consisted of the human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV) in their regular immunization schedules, greatly advancing efforts to get rid of cervical cancer as a public health risk.

– Prioritizing household planning services and contraception access led to WHO’s Family planning: a global handbook for service providers referral guide, which has been distributed over a million times. Accordingly, the percentage of women utilizing modern-day contraceptive methods increased from 467 million in 1990 to 874 million in 2022, while a wider variety of contraceptive alternatives is now offered.

A 2020 study discovered that there has been an around the world decline in unintentional pregnancy. Furthermore, evidence-based medical abortion regimens have enhanced global access to abortion, and over 60 nations have liberalized abortion laws in the previous thirty years in line with evidence on the value of such efforts to ensure the health of females and adolescent girls.

Professor Kate Gilmore, co-chair of the Gender and Human Rights Advisory Panel of HRP, credited the Strategy and WHO for helping produce crucial clinical evidence on SRHR that has actually added to a few of these shifts. “Some of the excellent advances that we’ve seen – consisting of the way civil society has taken up the cause to argue for access to safe and legal abortion – are because of the Strategy and the organized generation of proof over these previous 2 years,” she stated.

Despite early gains, nevertheless, recent years have seen indications of stagnancy. From 2000 to 2020, the maternal mortality rate stopped by 34% worldwide – however a 2023 report found that development has largely stalled since. The worrisome pattern was illustrated throughout a recent event showcasing international datasets on the advancement of SRHR given that ICPD. High maternal death rates continue a few nations and sexual health concerns, such as endometriosis, infertility and sexual erectile dysfunction, are frequently ignored or .

Dr Allotey and Dr Manjulaa Narasimhan, scientist at WHO and HRP, kept in mind in a recent commentary in the WHO Bulletin that the SRHR agenda remains incomplete and in some instances has fallen back due to geopolitical tensions, economic slumps, the worldwide food crisis, climate change, humanitarian crises and COVID-19.

There are emerging chances to catalyse progress – for example, by enhancing human rights-based approaches in SRHR and embedding concepts like non-discrimination, including in crisis scenarios. Improving health systems with a main health-care method can improve equity and broaden access to extensive SRHR services. New innovations and alternative service shipment methods can enhance SRHR by expanding gain access to, option and autonomy.

Other future-looking focus locations within SRHR include research on the transformative role of expert system and ingenious birth control approaches, additional work on enhancing health systems, and the sustaining prioritization of favorable pregnancy and giving birth experiences.

At a more comprehensive level, Dr Allotey required a continued emphasis on the foundational importance of SRHR. “Sexual and reproductive health must never ever be relegated to the margins of healthcare, but recognized as critical for the total wellness of people and the communities in which they live,” she said.