SDG3: Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 focuses on sexual and reproductive health

The governments of Kenya and Denmark and the United Nations Population Fund will co-convene the Nairobi Summit on International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) 25 between November 12 and 14.

The Nairobi Summit is a high-level conference to mobilize the political will and financial commitments urgently required to fully implement the ICPD Programme of Action. This action plan places the human rights of individuals, rather than numerical population targets, at the centre of the global development agenda.

The Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 is going to start on Tuesday, November 12. It takes place 25 years after the ICPD where 179 governments called for the empowerment of women and girls in all spheres of their lives, including in areas regarding sexual and reproductive health.

“Kenya is proud to host 6,000 world leaders, representatives of non-governmental organizations, young people, business and religious leaders, and so many others from 160 countries. Kenya will be front and centre of this watershed moment for women and girls everywhere,” Ambassador Macharia Kamau, Principal Secretary to Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

“We have come a long way since the ICPD in living up to our global commitment to make sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights a reality for all. But we still have a long way to go before we can say that we have achieved that goal,” he adds. “We must step up our efforts to make modern contraceptives available to all who want and need it, improve maternal health care and protect women and girls from gender-based violence and harmful practices like child marriage and female genital mutilation,” Arthur Erken, Director of Communications and Strategic Partnerships at UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, opined.

The South African delegation will include government officials from the Departments of Social Development, Health, International Relations, and Cooperation, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Basic Education, Statistics South Africa and the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities.

The Nairobi Summit is intended to focus on five main issues – sexual and reproductive health as part of universal health coverage, the funding required to realize all goals of the ICPD’s Programme of Action, demographic diversity and its power to drive economic growth and sustainable development, measures to end gender-based violence and harmful practices, and the right to sexual and reproductive health care, even in humanitarian and fragile contexts.

Nairobi Summit will be mainly covering on the following five themes:

• Universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights as a part of universal health coverage.
• Financing required to complete the ICPD Programme of Action, and to sustain the gains made.
• Drawing on demographic diversity to drive economic growth and achieve sustainable development.
• Ending gender-based violence and harmful practices.
• Upholding the right to sexual and reproductive health care even in humanitarian and fragile contexts.

Stay tuned to Devdiscourse to get the latest updates on Nairobi Summit.

We are here in #Nairobi to reignite, accelerate & keep the promise made at the landmark International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo 25 years ago. #ICPD25 We have unfinished business in pursuing rights & choices for women & girls. #KeepThePromise #SDGs pic.twitter.com/MJG4AdbE3g

— Amina J Mohammed (@AminaJMohammed) November 12, 2019