Thirty years back, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), held in Cairo, Egypt, underscored the right of all individuals to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). In 2004, WHO published a reproductive health strategy - 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 frameworks are grounded in gender equality and recognize the unvarying significance of sexual health in achieving health for all.

WHO scientists dealt with Member States, civil society 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

- getting rid of unsafe abortion

- combatting sexually sent infections (STIs).

- promoting sexual health.

Resolution WHA57.12 further informed SRHR policies and assisting files in several regions and Member States. For instance, Latin America's 2013 Montevideo Consensus and Africa's Maputo Plan of Action from 2016 (structure upon the original 2006 strategy) both include language and concepts reinforcing and supporting SRHR.

" The worldwide strategy is the foundational policy document that centres WHO's mandate 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 remains essential in adding to guiding research concerns and working with countries to develop useful resources to ensure thorough SRHR across the life course."

Significant development has been made over the last twenty years within each of the 5 pillars, consisting of these .

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

- As of March 2022, 60% of WHO Member States have consisted of the human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV) in their regular immunization schedules, significantly advancing efforts to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health threat.

- Prioritizing household preparation services and contraception gain access to resulted in WHO's Family preparation: a global handbook for providers referral guide, which has actually been distributed 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 variety of contraceptive choices is now readily available.


A 2020 research study found that there has actually been a worldwide decline in unintended pregnancy. Furthermore, evidence-based medical abortion regimens have enhanced international access to abortion, and over 60 nations have actually liberalized abortion laws in the past 30 years in line with proof on the value of such efforts to make sure the health of ladies 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 proof on SRHR that has added to some of these shifts. "A few of the excellent advances that we have actually seen - including the method civil society has taken up the cause to argue for access to safe and legal abortion - are because of the Strategy and the organized generation of evidence over these previous 2 decades," she said.

Despite early gains, however, current years have seen indications of stagnation. From 2000 to 2020, the maternal mortality rate come by 34% around the world - but a 2023 report found that progress has mostly stalled considering that. The worrisome trend was illustrated during a current occasion showcasing worldwide datasets on the development of SRHR since ICPD. High maternal mortality rates persist in a few nations and sexual health problems, such as endometriosis, infertility and sexual erectile dysfunction, are often ignored or normalized.

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 unfinished and in some circumstances has actually regressed due to geopolitical tensions, financial downturns, the global food crisis, climate modification, humanitarian crises and COVID-19.

There are emerging opportunities to catalyse development - for example, by improving human rights-based techniques in SRHR and embedding principles like non-discrimination, consisting of in crisis scenarios. Improving health systems with a main health-care technique can boost equity and broaden access to comprehensive SRHR services. New innovations and alternative service shipment techniques can improve SRHR by expanding access, choice and autonomy.

Other future-looking focus areas within SRHR consist of research study on the transformative role of expert system and innovative contraception methods, more work on strengthening health systems, and the sustaining prioritization of positive pregnancy and giving birth experiences.

At a wider level, Dr Allotey required a continued emphasis on the foundational significance of SRHR. "Sexual and reproductive health should never be relegated to the margins of health care, but recognized as crucial for the total wellness of people and the neighborhoods in which they live," she stated.