The 2022 HLPF Ministerial Declaration was adopted by Member States on July 15th, 2022 after almost 4 weeks of deliberation. However, the document does not do justice to the current context of multiple crisis – COVID-19, climate, conflict – which are inflicting great suffering on citizens of the world. 

While the Ministerial Declaration reaffirmed the 2030 Agenda as a plan of action globally to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic with the aim to build back better and further noted the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on achieving gender equality and in making progress towards the fulfillment of the human rights of women, girls and young people in all our diversity, the Ministerial Declaration fell short of actionable pathways to realise the 2030 agenda for sustainable development especially when this comes to gender equality, and sexual and reproductive health and rights. 

While the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 crisis on women, girls and young people is undeniable, ARROW and partners would like to specifically and strongly emphasise that if from the start – if our commitments was towards the full implementation of the holistic 2030 Agenda, anchored by human rights – the devastating effects would have been better ameliorated. Truly – these commitments are not new in essence – and have emerged from previous commitments of governments to Rio, Cairo, Beijing, Vienna and Nairobi. The deepened inequalities, further marginalisation, the disenfranchisement from the benefits of development experienced by poor and vulnerable groups, women, young people and girls during COVID-19 is a testament to the lack of commitment of States to these communities. 

The Ministerial Declaration fails to acknowledge the role of women in leading the COVID-19 health response. Upto 70% of the health workforce have been women shouldering the COVID-19 response and recovery. In addition the Ministerial Declaration does not commit to actionable pathways to address the shadow pandemic of violence against women, survived by women, girls, young people in all our diversity in the context of structural and systemic barriers of patriachy, unleashed further in time of COVID-19 lockdowns and limited mobility at disproportionate levels. 

Moreover despite having battled a global pandemic, health systems across the globe continue to be under-resourced and deprioritised. 

We reiterate the importance of intersectional, gender responsive and human rights-based commitments to the planning and implementation, follow up and review of 2030 Agenda, placing the most vulnerable including the marginalised women, girls and young people in all our diversity in the centre of the response and interventions during times of crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Around the world, women, girls and young people in all our diversity are denied the full realisation of our human rights and the opportunity to realise our full potential. The 2022 HLPF Ministerial declaration commits to preventing and responding to multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, sexual and gender based violence, and harmful practices including child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation, sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment. However, as we further unpack the commitments, we are deeply concerned about the lack of reference to women, girls’ and young people’s right to bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights,. The Ministerial Declaration limits itself to the mere mention of target 5.6 on ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights , as agreed in the ICPD Programme of Action and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences, with no actional commitments to ways to ensure these targets are met in the context of emerging multiple crises. 

In regards to Goal 4 on education, the Ministerial Declaration falls short of committing to what percentage of country budgets need to be allocated to inclusive equitable quality education in the current context of learning crises to transform education. Most importantly the lack of inclusion of comprehensive sexuality education especially in the current context where children, young people have endured many challenges to their sexual and reproductive health and well being is a missed opportunity. Moreover, the pathway of digitalisation of education which was used by governments to fill education gaps exacerbated learning inequalities – especially for girls from less-resourced communities.

We cannot deny that the commitments made are not robust enough to demand the necessary policy, programme and institutional paradigm shifts to address the lived realities of marginalised women, girls and young people in all our diversity who have been severely affected by the pandemic. The crisis has visibly deepened the multidimensional inequalities. Long standing gender inequality was reinforced by lockdown measures, amplifying the scale and severity of the impact. These measures also further disrupted the existing challenges to access health, including sexual and reproductive health services, education, basic food and nutrition for women and girls in most parts of the world. 

The crisis has further increased the risk of sexual and gender-based violence, maternal mortality, early and unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortion, female genital mutilation/cutting, human trafficking, and child, early and forced marriage, and restricted access and availability of a range of essential sexual and reproductive health services including contraceptives, safe abortion, and maternal, new-born and child health services. Women are affected by the increased burden of unpaid care work and many women especially those who work in the informal sector experienced loss of employment and livelihoods. Hence member states need to double down on their political will and the accompanying investments to ensure no woman, young person or girl gets left behind! 

As we strive towards achieving the 2030 Agenda, we call on Member States to never compromise the human rights including health and wellbeing of women, girls and young people in all our diversity. We urge Member States to:

• Uphold commitments and carry out human rights and constitutional obligations to adequately resource and ensure that all women, girls and young people in all our diversity have safe, timely and undisrupted access to full range of health information, supplies and services including sexual and reproductive health information and services such as access to contraceptives, safe abortion, respectful maternal care and new-born and child health, sexually transmitted infections and reproductive tract infections, anti-retroviral therapy (ART) and reproductive cancer prevention and treatment services which are essential and life-saving health services in the context of COVID-19.
• Place the most vulnerable and marginalised women, girls and young people in all our diversity at the center of all crisis and disaster management policies and incorporate provision of sexual and reproductive health information and services into the national crisis and disaster management policies, budget and programmes. 
• Recognise that gender responsive and intersectional approach is essential for protecting and fulfilling human rights, including  ensuring access to equitable, accessible and affordable COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics,diagnostics and other technologies  for everyone, especially for women, girls and young people from marginalised and vulnerable backgrounds. The removal of structural and systemic barriers is essential for achieving this and must start with the formation and implementation of laws and policies that do not discriminate against women, girls and young people in all our diversity.
• Provide adequate and accurate information about vaccine’s safety and efficacy for all especially pregnant women, breast feeding women, and transgender people. Organisation of vaccination should be safe and friendly for these groups especially.
• Ensure online and in school and out of school education includes comprehensive sexuality education in contexts where schools remain closed.
• Recognise that women play a critical role in COVID-19 crisis management and mitigation and include them equally and meaningfully in the designing, implementation, financing and monitoring of the crisis response, ensuring that the response at the local, national, regional and international levels include gender and human rights perspectives.
• Provide adequate financial, human and infrastructural resources towards implementing health policies, which ensures the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health for all including their sexual and reproductive health and rights.
• Improve public investment in health and develop social protection systems including universal access to health and health strategies to provide comprehensive sexual and reproductive rights for women, girls and young people in all our diversity, especially the marginalised and vulnerable groups. 
• Deploy an analytical approach on addressing the impact of COVID-19 on achieving all SDGs particularly Goal 3 on health, Goal 5 on gender equality and of course on Goal 10 on reducing inequalities with the emphasis on eliminating vaccine inequality.
• Lastly, the investment should also be made on disaggregated data for monitoring and strengthening policies and programmes especially for decision making in all aspects of response and recovery during a crisis.

The time to act is now – act for a robust, diverse, inclusive, sustained and actionable response, leaving no one behind.