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, underscored the right of all people to attain the greatest requirement 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 enhanced the centrality of SRHR to societies and economies (Resolution WHA57.12). These frameworks are grounded in gender equality and acknowledge the unchanging significance of sexual health in achieving health for all.

WHO researchers dealt with Member States, civil society and neighborhoods across all areas to operationalize a Worldwide Strategy to cover the 5 crucial pillars for enhancing SRHR:

– improving antenatal, perinatal, postpartum and newborn care

– providing family planning services

– eliminating risky abortion

– combatting sexually sent infections (STIs).

– promoting sexual health.

Resolution WHA57.12 further informed SRHR policies and guiding documents in a number of regions and Member States. For instance, 2013 Montevideo Consensus and Africa’s Maputo Strategy from 2016 (structure upon the original 2006 strategy) both include language and concepts strengthening and supporting SRHR.

” The worldwide strategy is the fundamental policy document that centres WHO’s required for sexual and reproductive health to date,” stated 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 dealing with countries to develop beneficial resources to ensure extensive SRHR throughout the life course.”

Significant development has been made over the last 20 years within each of the five pillars, including these examples.

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

– Since March 2022, 60% of WHO Member States have included the human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV) in their routine immunization schedules, significantly advancing efforts to remove cervical cancer as a public health danger.

– Prioritizing household planning services and birth control gain access to caused WHO’s Family preparation: a global handbook for companies referral guide, which has actually been disseminated over a million times. Accordingly, the proportion of females using modern contraceptive methods increased from 467 million in 1990 to 874 million in 2022, while a larger variety of contraceptive options is now available.

A 2020 study found that there has been a worldwide reduction in unintended pregnancy. Furthermore, evidence-based medical abortion regimens have actually enhanced worldwide access to abortion, and over 60 countries have actually liberalized abortion laws in the previous 30 years in line with evidence on the importance of such efforts to make sure the health of females and adolescent women.

Professor Kate Gilmore, co-chair of the Gender and Human Rights Advisory Panel of HRP, credited the Strategy and WHO for helping create essential clinical evidence on SRHR that has actually contributed to some of these shifts. “Some of the terrific advances that we’ve seen – consisting of the method civil society has taken up the cause to argue for access to safe and legal abortion – are due to the Strategy and the systematic generation of evidence over these past 2 years,” she stated.

Despite early gains, however, current years have seen indications of stagnancy. From 2000 to 2020, the maternal mortality rate stopped by 34% worldwide – but a 2023 report discovered that progress has largely stalled because. The uneasy pattern was shown during a recent occasion showcasing worldwide datasets on the evolution of SRHR because ICPD. High maternal mortality rates continue a few countries and sexual health issues, such as endometriosis, infertility and sexual erectile dysfunction, are often ignored or stabilized.

Dr Allotey and Dr Manjulaa Narasimhan, scientist at WHO and HRP, noted in a recent commentary in the WHO Bulletin that the SRHR program stays unfinished and in some instances has fallen back due to geopolitical stress, economic downturns, the worldwide food crisis, environment change, humanitarian crises and COVID-19.

There are emerging opportunities to catalyse progress – for instance, by boosting human rights-based approaches in SRHR and embedding principles like non-discrimination, including in crisis situations. Improving health systems with a main health-care technique can boost equity and expand access to comprehensive SRHR services. New innovations and alternative service delivery methods can improve SRHR by broadening gain access to, choice and autonomy.

Other future-looking focus locations within SRHR consist of research study on the transformative role of expert system and innovative contraception methods, more deal with enhancing health systems, and the enduring prioritization of positive pregnancy and childbirth experiences.

At a more comprehensive level, Dr Allotey required a continued focus on the fundamental importance of SRHR. “Sexual and reproductive health must never be relegated to the margins of health care, but acknowledged as critical for the overall well-being of individuals and the neighborhoods in which they live,” she stated.