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

Thirty years back, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), kept in Cairo, Egypt, highlighted the right of all individuals to accomplish the greatest requirement 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 reinforced the midpoint of SRHR to societies and economies (Resolution WHA57.12). These frameworks are grounded in gender equality and acknowledge the unvarying importance of sexual health in attaining health for all.

WHO scientists dealt with Member States, civil society and neighborhoods across all regions to operationalize an International Strategy to cover the five crucial pillars for enhancing SRHR:

- improving antenatal, perinatal, postpartum and newborn care

- providing household preparation services

- removing risky abortion

- fighting sexually sent infections (STIs).

- promoting sexual health.

Resolution WHA57.12 further informed SRHR policies and directing documents in a number of regions 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 concepts strengthening and maintaining SRHR.

" The worldwide technique is the fundamental policy document that centres WHO's mandate 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 directing research study top priorities and working with nations to establish helpful resources to guarantee thorough SRHR across the life course."

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

- The Global strategy came about as the world was reeling from the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Today, the variety of individuals acquiring HIV has fallen by 38% because 2010 alone, due in part to the Strategy's focus on eliminating STIs including HIV.

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

- Prioritizing family preparation services and birth control gain access to led to WHO's Family preparation: a global handbook for suppliers referral guide, which has been shared over a million times. Accordingly, the percentage of ladies utilizing contemporary contraceptive approaches increased from 467 million in 1990 to 874 million in 2022, while a wider series of contraceptive choices is now readily available.


A 2020 study discovered that there has actually been an around the world decrease in unintentional pregnancy. Furthermore, evidence-based medical abortion regimens have improved worldwide access to abortion, and over 60 countries have liberalized abortion laws in the previous thirty years in line with proof on the importance of such efforts to guarantee 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 fantastic 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 due to the Strategy and the systematic generation of proof over these previous 20 years," she said.

Despite early gains, however, current years have seen indications of stagnation. From 2000 to 2020, the maternal mortality rate stopped by 34% around the world - but a 2023 report found that development has mainly stalled since. The uneasy pattern was highlighted throughout a recent occasion showcasing international datasets on the development of SRHR because ICPD. High maternal mortality rates persist in a few countries and sexual health problems, such as endometriosis, infertility and sexual erectile dysfunction, are often ignored 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 fallen back due to geopolitical tensions, financial downturns, the worldwide food crisis, climate change, humanitarian crises and COVID-19.

There are emerging to catalyse progress - for instance, by boosting human rights-based approaches in SRHR and embedding principles like non-discrimination, consisting of in crisis situations. Improving health systems with a primary health-care method can enhance equity and expand access to comprehensive SRHR services. New innovations and alternative service shipment methods can enhance SRHR by expanding gain access to, choice and autonomy.

Other future-looking focus areas within SRHR include research on the transformative function of expert system and innovative birth control techniques, additional work on strengthening health systems, and the sustaining prioritization of favorable pregnancy and giving birth experiences.

At a wider level, Dr Allotey required a continued emphasis on the foundational importance of SRHR. "Sexual and reproductive health ought to never be relegated to the margins of healthcare, but recognized as critical for the total well-being of people and the communities in which they live," she said.