Health is a central component of sustainable development. The best framework that countries have in ensuring people’s health and wellbeing is through Universal Health Coverage (UHC), which the World Health Organization (WHO) describes to mean that “all individuals and communities receive the health services they need without suffering financial hardship.” Reducing out-of-pocket costs for patients is a central goal of UHC as the need to pay for care discourages usage if it is going to cause financial hardship, which consequently leads to poorer health outcomes particularly amongst marginalised groups such as people with lower socio-economic status, indigenous communities and undocumented migrants and refugees. Gender-based differences in terms of access to and control of household resources, decision making within and outside the home, and roles and responsibilities within the family, all culminate and have decisive influence on health-seeking behaviour, health status and access to health services. These gendered factors result in unequal accessibility of health systems and lead to shortcomings in women’s health at all ages.
Globally, ARROW is the only regional organisation that has consistently conducted five-yearly research and monitoring of the ICPD Programme of Action (PoA). We have consistently monitored the implementation of SRHR in the Asia-Pacific region to assess progress/lack of progress in select countries with the support of national-level partners. As a result of this work, ARROW has accumulated expertise in developing critical SRHR monitoring indicators; a methodology of carrying out monitoring and advocacy around the ICPD PoA.
