Gita Sen, Professor, Centre for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India, gave a presentation on the UN Development Agenda Beyond 2015/ICPD Beyond 2014 – the Global Context. She pointed out the challenge of three global process taking place simultaneously, ie Rio + 20, with its High-Level Meeting in 2012; ICPD Beyond 2014; and the 15 year review of the MDGs and what will follow them.
What has changed and what remains the same
Professor Sen pointed out what has changed and what remains the same -- The environment for SRHR has changed, for example, with respect to financial governability, which has affected its funding and focus; the environment has also changed because of climate change, food security and the energy crisis, renewing the discourse about population growth; and the epidemiological profiles with the coexistence of infectious disease with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in many low and middle countries which affects policy decisions. She referred to the ‘maturing’ of the HIV epidemic with consolidation of incidence rates among women in many countries and the changing demographic profile with the largest ever cohort od young people (aged 10-24), ie 1.8 billion adolescents and youth who need comprehensive school= and community-based sexuality education for information and support including referral to health services. What has not changed is the need for sexual and reproductive health services for women and girls. Governments should therefore go back to what was agreed in Cairo as included in para 7.6 of the ICPD PoA. (Can we add in a link to this para in the ICPD Programme of Action.)In addition, the unfinished agenda for women and girls remains –abortion, for example, is legal in most countries under some circumstances, but it continues to be under attack from religious conservatives, and is often self-censored by some key organizations. At the same time there is a resurfacing of a population numbers-focused agenda with family planning with or without human rights tagged on as an afterthought.
There have, however, been some changes, according to Professor Sen, as exemplified by the way young people are mobilizing for their rights and for democracy and the more inclusive themes in rights-based mobilization globally and nationally. She referred particularly to the resolution on ‘Preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and human rights’ of June 2009 of the UN Human Rights Council; the Report to the UN General Assembly in October 2011 of Anand Grover, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health linking decriminalization of abortion to the right to health; the ‘reading down’ of Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code (the so-called ‘sodomy law’ which visited criminal sanctions in the colonies which were never recognized in Britain itself) by the Delhi High Court in July 2009; and the decriminalization of abortion in Nepal in 2002.
Ways forward
Professor Sen suggested a three-pronged agenda in moving forward:
This agenda that should be underpinned by gender equality has been articulated by the UNFPA Executive Director and is in line with the UNFPA revised strategic plan for 2012-13 and its development results framework (DRF) which has been approved by the Board: to achieve integrated SRH services for all and to secure adolescents’ health and development with an underlying commitment to gender equality and human rights. It is also consistent with the UN Secretary-General’s Global Strategy for Women and Children’s Health (November 2010) and the UN Global Health Initiative (May 2009)