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

Thirty years earlier, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), held in Cairo, Egypt, highlighted the right of all people to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). In 2004, WHO published a reproductive health method - 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 structures are grounded in gender equality and recognize the changeless significance of sexual health in achieving health for all.

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

- improving antenatal, perinatal, postpartum and newborn care

- providing household preparation services

- eliminating hazardous abortion

- fighting sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

- promoting sexual health.

Resolution WHA57.12 additional notified SRHR policies and guiding documents in numerous regions and Member States. For example, Latin America's 2013 Montevideo Consensus and Africa's Maputo Plan of Action from 2016 (building upon the original 2006 plan) both consist of language and concepts enhancing and promoting SRHR.

" The worldwide strategy is the fundamental policy file 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 essential in adding to assisting research study top priorities and dealing with nations to establish helpful resources to ensure comprehensive SRHR throughout the life course."

Significant progress has actually been made over the last 20 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 number of individuals getting HIV has actually fallen by 38% because 2010 alone, due in part to the Strategy's emphasis on getting rid of STIs including HIV.

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

- Prioritizing household planning services and contraception access resulted in WHO's Family planning: a worldwide handbook for providers recommendation guide, which has actually been disseminated over a million times. Accordingly, the percentage of women using modern contraceptive methods increased from 467 million in 1990 to 874 million in 2022, while a wider series of contraceptive options is now readily available.


A 2020 study found that there has been a worldwide reduction in unexpected pregnancy. Furthermore, evidence-based medical abortion programs have actually improved global access to abortion, and over 60 countries have liberalized abortion laws in the past thirty years in line with proof on the importance of such efforts to guarantee the health of females 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 produce essential clinical evidence on SRHR that has added to some of these shifts. "A few of the excellent advances that we have actually seen - consisting of the way civil society has actually used 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 twenty years," she said.

Despite early gains, nevertheless, current years have actually seen indications of stagnancy. From 2000 to 2020, the maternal mortality rate stopped by 34% worldwide - but a 2023 report found that progress has actually mainly stalled because. The worrisome trend was shown during a current event showcasing worldwide datasets on the development of SRHR given that ICPD. High maternal mortality rates continue a few countries and sexual health concerns, 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 agenda stays incomplete and in some instances has regressed due to geopolitical stress, financial recessions, the international food crisis, environment change, humanitarian crises and COVID-19.

There are emerging chances to catalyse development - for example, by enhancing human rights-based methods in SRHR and embedding principles like non-discrimination, consisting of in crisis situations. Improving health systems with a primary health-care technique can boost equity and expand access to detailed SRHR services. New technologies and alternative service shipment techniques can enhance SRHR by expanding access, option and autonomy.

Other future-looking focus locations within SRHR include research study on the transformative function of expert system and ingenious contraception approaches, more work on reinforcing health systems, and the sustaining prioritization of positive pregnancy and childbirth experiences.

At a broader level, Dr Allotey required a continued focus on the foundational importance of SRHR. "Sexual and reproductive health must never ever be relegated to the margins of healthcare, however recognized as crucial for the general wellness of people and the neighborhoods in which they live," she stated.