This oral statement was delivered at the 57th Session of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD57). Click here to watch the video statement.
I am Sai Jyothirmai Racherla , and I represent the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW) and 37 partners in the region.
We welcome the adoption of the Political Declaration at the 30th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), underscoring the importance of gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in advancing sustainable development.
The Asia and the Pacific region continues to project exacerbated inequalities. Women and young people in all their diversity, including structurally excluded marginalised and intersecting identity groups, face varied and significant inequalities in their agency, meaningful participation, and access to quality, safe, affordable and responsive sexual and reproductive health information and services.
Despite some regional progress between 2000-2015—for example, the decline in AGGREGATE maternal mortality ratio, increased contraceptive prevalence rate, and reduced adolescent fertility rate—our region has made only 14.4% progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets and indicators.
Given the stark global, regional, and national challenges—like conflict and humanitarian crises, adverse impacts of climate change, COVID-19, economic fragility, weak infrastructure and health systems, and growing fundamentalisms — it will be impossible to reach the targets by 2030, especially on gender equality and SRHR.
At this juncture, we need transformative actions.
Towards this, our recommendations include:
- Addressing the sexual and reproductive health related lived realities of people in all their diversities.
- Increased political will at all levels, and sufficient mobilisation of resources, both domestic finance and development finance to developing countries.
- Ensure sustained funding made available for women’s rights organisations, youth-led and youth-serving organisations.
- Mobilise communities and governments to eliminate harmful practices such as child, early, and forced marriage; Female Genital Mutilation and/or Cutting; adolescent fertility; and violence.
- Review, repeal, update, develop relevant laws, acts, policies, standard operating procedures to uphold SRHR information and services for all, and prioritise national health system strengthening.
- Enable access to a range of SRHR services including a full range of modern contraception and safe abortion services without stigma, discrimination or violence.
- Support research, disaggregated data and evidence, informed by the lived realities of marginalised and vulnerable groups, to strengthen policy and implementation for ensuring SRHR.
- Ensure that the SRHR needs and rights of all individuals are prioritised especially during climate and humanitarian crises, emergencies, conflicts and war.
- And finally, but most importantly, establish strong linkages to the Summit of the Future, with ICPD commitments integrated into the Pact of the Future and other Summit outcomes.
