ARROW’s Intervention at the PGA’s Interactive Meeting with Civil Society in Advance of the High-level Stock-taking Event on the Post-2015 Development Agenda

Delivered by Maria Melinda Ando, Programme Manager, ARROW

Thank you, Mr. President and distinguished delegates. My name is Malyn Ando from the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), a regional organization based in Malaysia and I also represent the Asia-Pacific Regional CSO Engagement Mechanism composed of more than 100 NGOs and people’s movements. We appreciate this platform for civil society inputs.

We call on member states to be bolder, as we set new goals and targets for the post-2015 development agenda. The world has changed and yet for women and young people, despite support of many governments, the current commitments regarding our bodies and lives have not moved much forward.

Like many of our colleagues who spoke earlier, we think that the current formulations of the sexual and reproductive health targets, affirming only reproductive rights, are insufficient. Sexual and reproductive health and rights are fundamental rights, and are integral to achieving gender and social justice, and sustainable development. We thus call for the full inclusion of Universal Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in both the gender and health goals. We also urge that comprehensive sexuality education to all young people, in and out of school, be added as a target, as this is crucial for their empowerment to make informed decisions about their bodies and lives, and that SRHR—and not just reproductive health—be integrated into national strategies and programmes.

Barriers to achieving gender and social justice, including religious fundamentalisms which impact on health, sexuality and rights of women, young people and sexual and gender minorities, must also be recognized, addressed and countered.

Moreover, we strongly recommend that the Post-2015 development agenda affirm that achieving sustainable development requires addressing issues of poverty, hunger, food insecurity, gender inequality, health, including sexual and reproductive health and rights, climate change, holistically, and that these issues are all intertwined.

We call for strong monitoring and accountability mechanisms for these commitments.

We also urge you to leave no one behind as we move towards the new sustainable development framework—even as this include women, young people, indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, and migrants, we should also not forget people of diverse sexual orientation and gender identity and expressions. Thank you.