Thirty years back, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), kept in Cairo, Egypt, underscored the right of all people to achieve the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). In 2004, WHO released a reproductive health strategy - ratified by 191 Member States at the Fifty-seventh World Health Assembly - that reinforced the centrality of SRHR to societies and economies (Resolution WHA57.12). These frameworks are grounded in gender equality and recognize the constant value of sexual health in attaining health for all.

WHO researchers worked with Member States, civil society and communities throughout all areas to operationalize a Worldwide Strategy to cover the five key pillars for improving SRHR:

- enhancing antenatal, perinatal, postpartum and newborn care
- supplying family planning services
- eliminating risky abortion
- fighting sexually transferred infections (STIs).
- promoting sexual health.


Resolution WHA57.12 more notified SRHR policies and guiding documents in a number of areas and Member States. For example, Latin America’s 2013 Montevideo Consensus and Africa’s Maputo Plan of Action from 2016 (structure upon the initial 2006 plan) both consist of language and ideas enhancing and supporting 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 important in contributing to guiding research study top priorities and dealing with countries to establish beneficial resources to make sure detailed SRHR across the life course.”
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Significant progress has actually been made over the last twenty years within each of the 5 pillars, consisting of these examples.

- The Global method came about as the world was reeling from the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Today, the number of individuals acquiring HIV has fallen by 38% because 2010 alone, due in part to the Strategy’s emphasis on getting rid of STIs consisting of HIV.
- As of March 2022, 60% of WHO Member States have included the human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV) in their regular immunization schedules, significantly advancing efforts to remove cervical cancer as a public health hazard.
- Prioritizing household preparation services and birth control access resulted in WHO’s Family planning: a global handbook for service providers referral guide, which has actually been over a million times. Accordingly, the percentage of ladies utilizing modern-day contraceptive methods increased from 467 million in 1990 to 874 million in 2022, while a wider series of contraceptive alternatives is now offered.
A 2020 research study found that there has actually been an around the world decline in unexpected pregnancy. Furthermore, evidence-based medical abortion programs 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 significance of such efforts to guarantee the health of females and teen women.

Professor Kate Gilmore, co-chair of the Gender and Human Rights Advisory Panel of HRP, credited the Strategy and WHO for assisting create important scientific evidence on SRHR that has contributed to some of these shifts. “Some of the fantastic advances that we’ve seen - including 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 previous twenty years,” she said.

Despite early gains, nevertheless, recent years have seen indications of stagnation. From 2000 to 2020, the maternal death rate visited 34% worldwide - however a 2023 report found that development has actually mostly stalled considering that. The worrisome trend was highlighted throughout a recent event showcasing global datasets on the evolution of SRHR considering that ICPD. High maternal death rates persist in a couple of nations and sexual health concerns, such as endometriosis, infertility and sexual erectile dysfunction, are often overlooked or normalized.
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Dr Allotey and Dr Manjulaa Narasimhan, researcher at WHO and HRP, kept in mind in a recent commentary in the WHO Bulletin that the SRHR agenda remains incomplete and in some instances has fallen back due to geopolitical tensions, financial declines, the global food crisis, climate change, humanitarian crises and COVID-19.
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There are emerging opportunities to catalyse development - for example, by boosting human rights-based methods in SRHR and embedding concepts like non-discrimination, consisting of in crisis circumstances. Improving health systems with a primary health-care method can improve equity and expand access to detailed SRHR services. New technologies and alternative service delivery approaches can enhance SRHR by broadening gain access to, option and autonomy.

Other future-looking focus locations within SRHR consist of research on the transformative role of expert system and ingenious contraception methods, more deal with 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 fundamental value of SRHR. “Sexual and reproductive health must never be relegated to the margins of healthcare, but recognized as critical for the general well-being of individuals and the communities in which they live,” she said.