Current status of sexual and reproductive health: Prospects for achieving the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Millennium Development Goals in the Pacific.

Abstract

The paradigm shift in population and development that occurred at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994 from reduction in population growth for socio-economic progress to ensuring sexual and reproductive health and rights as a fundamental human right and as a means for improving the quality of life has also become apparent in the Pacific. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) provide the current global framework for development efforts and were formally endorsed in 2000 by 189 countries including Pacific island countries. The importance of sexual and reproductive health was not fully articulated during the formulation of the MDGs as an explicit goal. However during the World Summit convened in 2005 world leaders endorsed the fundamental human right of "universal access to sexual and reproductive health services" _ an additional target to the MDG 5 as a result of intense lobbying by sexual and reproductive health advocates including the Prime Minister of Tuvalu. The full integration of the MDGs into national sustainable development strategies and plans outlining an allocation of a certain percentage of the national budgets to poverty reduction is requiring a lengthy internalization and implementation process for many Pacific island countries. Part of the challenge for many of those countries has been the relevance of the poverty definition and the prevailing perception by some country leaders that "poverty of opportunity" is the more fundamental issue. Repositioning family planning as an integral development strategy for poverty reduction and as a mechanism for achieving fundamental reproductive rights needs to be acknowledged at the highest political level. (excerpt)