Thirty years back, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), kept in Cairo, Egypt, underscored the right of all people to attain the greatest standard of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). In 2004, WHO published a reproductive health method - ratified by 191 Member States at the Fifty-seventh World Health Assembly - that strengthened the centrality of SRHR to societies and economies (Resolution WHA57.12). These structures are grounded in gender equality and acknowledge the unvarying significance of sexual health in achieving health for all.

WHO scientists worked with Member States, civil society and neighborhoods across all regions to operationalize a Worldwide Strategy to cover the 5 essential pillars for enhancing SRHR:

- enhancing antenatal, perinatal, postpartum and newborn care

- offering family preparation services

- getting rid of risky abortion

- combatting sexually sent infections (STIs).

- promoting sexual health.

Resolution WHA57.12 additional informed SRHR policies and guiding files in several 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 ideas enhancing and upholding SRHR.

" The worldwide method is the fundamental policy file 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 stays essential in contributing to guiding research concerns and dealing with nations to establish helpful resources to ensure extensive 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 method 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 consisting of HIV.

- Since March 2022, 60% of WHO Member States have actually 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 hazard.

- Prioritizing household preparation services and birth control gain access to led to WHO's Family preparation: a worldwide handbook for providers reference guide, which has actually been shared over a million times. Accordingly, the proportion of women utilizing contemporary contraceptive techniques increased from 467 million in 1990 to 874 million in 2022, while a larger range of contraceptive alternatives is now available.


A 2020 study discovered that there has actually been a worldwide decrease in unexpected pregnancy. Furthermore, evidence-based medical abortion regimens have improved global access to abortion, and over 60 countries have actually liberalized abortion laws in the previous 30 years in line with proof on the importance of such efforts to ensure the health of females and teen girls.

Professor Kate Gilmore, co-chair of the Gender and Human Rights Advisory Panel of HRP, credited the Strategy and WHO for helping generate important clinical proof on SRHR that has added to some of these shifts. "A few of the terrific advances that we have actually seen - consisting of the way civil society has taken up the cause to argue for access to safe and legal abortion - are because of the Strategy and the methodical generation of evidence over these past 2 decades," she stated.

Despite early gains, nevertheless, recent years have seen signs of stagnation. From 2000 to 2020, the maternal death rate dropped by 34% worldwide - however a 2023 report found that development has actually mainly stalled because. The worrisome trend was highlighted throughout a recent occasion showcasing worldwide datasets on the advancement of SRHR given that ICPD. High maternal mortality rates persist in a few nations and sexual health issues, such as endometriosis, infertility and sexual erectile dysfunction, are typically 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 agenda stays incomplete and in some circumstances has regressed due to geopolitical tensions, economic declines, the international food crisis, climate modification, humanitarian crises and COVID-19.

There are emerging chances to catalyse development - for example, by boosting human rights-based methods in SRHR and embedding concepts like non-discrimination, consisting of in crisis situations. Improving health systems with a primary health-care method can boost equity and expand access to comprehensive SRHR services. New technologies and alternative service delivery methods can improve SRHR by expanding access, choice and autonomy.

Other future-looking focus locations within SRHR consist of research study on the transformative role of expert system and ingenious contraception techniques, further work on strengthening health systems, and the enduring prioritization of positive pregnancy and childbirth experiences.

At a wider level, Dr Allotey called for an ongoing emphasis on the fundamental importance of SRHR. "Sexual and reproductive health ought to never ever be relegated to the margins of health care, however acknowledged as critical for the overall well-being of people and the neighborhoods in which they live," she stated.