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, underscored the right of all people to accomplish the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). In 2004, WHO released a reproductive health method - validated by 191 Member States at the Fifty-seventh World Health Assembly - that strengthened the midpoint of SRHR to societies and economies (Resolution WHA57.12). These structures are grounded in gender equality and acknowledge the unchanging value of sexual health in attaining health for all.

WHO scientists worked with Member States, civil society and neighborhoods throughout all areas to operationalize a Worldwide Strategy to cover the five crucial pillars for improving 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 assisting files in a number of areas and Member States. For example, Latin America's 2013 Montevideo Consensus and Africa's Maputo Strategy from 2016 (building upon the initial 2006 strategy) both include language and ideas enhancing and upholding SRHR.

" The global strategy is the fundamental policy file 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 crucial in adding to directing research concerns and dealing with nations to establish beneficial resources to make sure comprehensive SRHR throughout the life course."

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

- The Global technique happened as the world was reeling from the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Today, the variety of individuals getting HIV has fallen by 38% considering that 2010 alone, due in part to the Strategy's focus on getting rid of STIs consisting of HIV.

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

- Prioritizing family preparation services and birth control access led to WHO's Family preparation: a global handbook for service providers reference guide, which has actually been distributed over a million times. Accordingly, the percentage of women utilizing contemporary contraceptive techniques increased from 467 million in 1990 to 874 million in 2022, while a wider variety of contraceptive alternatives is now available.


A 2020 research study discovered that there has been an around the world decline in unintended pregnancy. Furthermore, evidence-based medical abortion regimens have improved international access to abortion, and over 60 countries have liberalized abortion laws in the previous thirty years in line with evidence on the significance of such efforts to ensure the health of women 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 scientific proof on SRHR that has actually added to some of these shifts. "Some of the great advances that we've seen - consisting of the method civil society has actually used up the cause to argue for access to safe and legal abortion - are due to the Strategy and the methodical generation of proof over these previous 20 years," she stated.

Despite early gains, however, recent years have actually seen signs of stagnancy. From 2000 to 2020, the maternal mortality rate stopped by 34% worldwide - but a 2023 report discovered that development has actually mostly stalled considering that. The worrisome trend was illustrated during a recent event showcasing international datasets on the development of SRHR considering that ICPD. High maternal mortality rates continue in a few nations and sexual health concerns, such as endometriosis, infertility and sexual erectile dysfunction, are often neglected or normalized.

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 stays incomplete and in some instances has actually regressed due to geopolitical tensions, economic recessions, the international food crisis, climate modification, humanitarian crises and COVID-19.

There are emerging opportunities to catalyse development - for instance, by enhancing human rights-based approaches in SRHR and embedding principles like non-discrimination, consisting of in crisis scenarios. Improving health systems with a primary health-care technique can improve 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 locations within SRHR include research on the transformative role of expert system and ingenious contraception methods, further deal with enhancing health systems, and the sustaining prioritization of favorable pregnancy and childbirth experiences.

At a wider level, Dr Allotey required a continued focus on the value of SRHR. "Sexual and reproductive health should never be relegated to the margins of health care, but recognized as vital for the total well-being of individuals and the neighborhoods in which they live," she stated.