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

WHO scientists dealt with Member States, civil society and communities throughout all regions to operationalize a Worldwide Strategy to cover the 5 crucial pillars for improving SRHR:

- improving antenatal, perinatal, postpartum and newborn care

- providing family preparation services

- getting rid of hazardous abortion

- combatting sexually transferred infections (STIs).

- promoting sexual health.

Resolution WHA57.12 more notified SRHR policies and directing files in numerous areas and Member States. For instance, Latin America's 2013 Montevideo Consensus and Africa's Maputo Plan of Action from 2016 (building upon the original 2006 strategy) both consist of language and ideas reinforcing and upholding SRHR.

" The international method is the foundational 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 working with nations to establish useful resources to guarantee extensive SRHR throughout the life course."

Significant progress has been made over the last twenty years within each of the five 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 people acquiring HIV has actually fallen by 38% considering that 2010 alone, due in part to the Strategy's focus on removing STIs including HIV.

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

- Prioritizing family planning services and birth control gain access to led to WHO's Family planning: a worldwide handbook for service providers recommendation guide, which has been distributed over a million times. Accordingly, the percentage of females using modern-day contraceptive methods increased from 467 million in 1990 to 874 million in 2022, while a wider range of contraceptive options is now offered.


A 2020 study discovered that there has been a worldwide decline in unintentional pregnancy. Furthermore, evidence-based medical abortion routines have actually enhanced global access to abortion, and over 60 countries have actually liberalized abortion laws in the past thirty years in line with evidence 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 terrific advances that we have actually seen - including the way civil society has 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 visited 34% around the world - but a 2023 report discovered that development has actually mostly stalled given that. The uneasy trend was illustrated throughout a recent event showcasing international datasets on the evolution of SRHR because ICPD. High maternal mortality rates continue a couple of countries and sexual health concerns, such as endometriosis, infertility and sexual erectile dysfunction, are often neglected or stabilized.

Dr Allotey and Dr Manjulaa Narasimhan, researcher at WHO and HRP, noted in a recent commentary in the WHO Bulletin that the SRHR agenda remains unfinished and in some instances has fallen back due to geopolitical tensions, financial recessions, the international food crisis, environment change, humanitarian crises and COVID-19.

There are emerging chances to catalyse development - for example, by boosting human rights-based techniques in SRHR and embedding concepts like non-discrimination, consisting of in crisis scenarios. Improving health systems with a main health-care approach can boost equity and expand access to extensive 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 on the transformative role of expert system and innovative contraception techniques, additional deal with strengthening health systems, and the enduring prioritization of positive pregnancy and giving birth experiences.

At a broader level, Dr Allotey called for a continued emphasis on the foundational significance of SRHR. "Sexual and reproductive health must never ever be relegated to the margins of health care, however acknowledged as crucial for the total well-being of people and the neighborhoods in which they live," she said.