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

Thirty years ago, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), held in Cairo, Egypt, highlighted the right of all people to accomplish the greatest standard of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). In 2004, WHO published a reproductive health strategy – validated by 191 Member States at the Fifty-seventh World Health Assembly – that strengthened the centrality of SRHR to societies and economies (Resolution WHA57.12). These frameworks are grounded in gender equality and recognize the imperishable significance of sexual health in achieving health for all.

WHO scientists dealt with Member States, civil society and communities throughout all regions to operationalize a Global Strategy to cover the 5 crucial pillars for enhancing SRHR:

– improving antenatal, perinatal, postpartum and newborn care

– offering family planning services

– eliminating risky abortion

– combatting sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

– promoting sexual health.

Resolution WHA57.12 more informed SRHR policies and directing documents in numerous areas and Member States. For example, Latin America’s 2013 Montevideo Consensus and Africa’s Maputo Strategy from 2016 (structure upon the initial 2006 strategy) both include language and ideas reinforcing and supporting SRHR.

” The international method is the fundamental 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 remains important in adding to guiding research study concerns and working with nations to establish beneficial resources to guarantee thorough SRHR across the life course.”

Significant development has been made over the last twenty years within each of the 5 pillars, including these examples.

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

– Since March 2022, 60% of WHO Member States have actually included the vaccine (HPV) in their regular immunization schedules, considerably advancing efforts to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health danger.

– Prioritizing family planning services and contraception access caused WHO’s Family preparation: a worldwide handbook for companies reference 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 choices is now available.

A 2020 study discovered that there has been an around the world reduction in unintended pregnancy. Furthermore, evidence-based medical abortion routines have actually improved international access to abortion, and over 60 countries have liberalized abortion laws in the past 30 years in line with evidence on the significance of such efforts to ensure the health of ladies and adolescent ladies.

Professor Kate Gilmore, co-chair of the Gender and Human Rights Advisory Panel of HRP, credited the Strategy and WHO for assisting create crucial clinical evidence on SRHR that has actually contributed to some of these shifts. “A few of the fantastic advances that we’ve seen – including the method civil society has taken up the cause to argue for access to safe and legal abortion – are because of the Strategy and the methodical generation of evidence over these past 20 years,” she stated.

Despite early gains, however, recent years have actually seen signs of stagnation. From 2000 to 2020, the maternal mortality rate stopped by 34% around the world – but a 2023 report found that development has actually mainly stalled given that. The uneasy pattern was illustrated during a recent event showcasing worldwide datasets on the development of SRHR because ICPD. High maternal death rates continue in a couple of countries and sexual health issues, such as endometriosis, infertility and sexual erectile dysfunction, are often overlooked or normalized.

Dr Allotey and Dr Manjulaa Narasimhan, scientist at WHO and HRP, kept in mind in a current commentary in the WHO Bulletin that the SRHR program stays incomplete and in some circumstances has regressed due to geopolitical tensions, economic slumps, the global food crisis, environment change, humanitarian crises and COVID-19.

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

Other future-looking focus areas within SRHR consist of research study on the transformative role of expert system and innovative birth control methods, additional deal with strengthening health systems, and the withstanding prioritization of positive pregnancy and childbirth experiences.

At a more comprehensive level, Dr Allotey called for an ongoing emphasis on the fundamental importance of SRHR. “Sexual and reproductive health should never be relegated to the margins of health care, however acknowledged as important for the overall wellness of individuals and the communities in which they live,” she said.