ICPD Beyond 2014 Review Expert Meeting on Women’s Health: rights, empowerment and social determinants

The ICPD Beyond 2014 Review Expert Meeting on Women’s Health: rights, empowerment and social determinants begins today, 30 September 2014 in Mexico City.

As stated in the Concept Paper the primary purpose of this three-day meeting is to review existing evidence and information on, produce insights about, and generate recommendations on ways to accelerate progress toward universal access to an integrated package of core SRH services, and toward protection of girls’ and women’s human rights, including reproductive rights. Drawing on background papers and commissioned country case studies as well as their own individual experiences and knowledge, participants will review the effectiveness of national level actions taken to date and make recommendations to:

• Strengthen the health sector’s provision of integrated SRH services with attention to the quality and use of specific services such as contraception as well as assessment of progress toward the integrated package of SRH services envisioned in the ICPD Programme of Action;


• Provide effective information and education on SRHR, including to adolescents; and


• Create an enabling socio-economic, political, legal, and policy environments for women and girls to be able to claim and exercise their sexual and reproductive health and rights. 
A second purpose is to identify ways and assess in which country-based work, as well as related work at the regional and global level to achieve universal access to SRHR could provide a foundation for prevention of and services for NCDs in girls and women.

Participants in the consultation will debate and build recommendations on:

• Key principles, approaches and actions required to fill national, legal, policy, programme and funding gaps in the four primary SRH services and in protection of reproductive rights, with attention to the disparities among and within countries to equity and to quality of care;


• Priority actions and investments required to create an enabling environment for the SRHR of women and girls with a focus on marginalized and excluded groups;


• Enhancing national progress toward universal access to SRHR and creation of an enabling environment in all low and middle- income countries, particularly for women and girls in a situation of disadvantage or belonging to marginalized and excluded groups;


• Guidance on the strengthening of accountability and protection mechanisms in relation with women’s human rights and the health sector; and


• Actions that can be taken by, and in addition to, SRHR initiatives to begin, to address girls’ and women’s risk and experience of NCDs;

The recommendations will focus on how to make more progress faster toward women’s health and human rights, particularly SRHR, in the remainder of the MDG period, and on how to frame and secure inclusion of women’s and girls’ health and human rights in the design of post-2015 development framework. The recommendations will be included in a report of the meeting and disseminated wildly.

Further information will be posted on this website as it becomes available.