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U.S. Government Rejoins Worldwide Consensus on Reproductive Health   
Jan. 8, 2010 — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today addressed hundreds of health and development leaders at the State Department to reaffirm the U.S. government’s commitment to achieving universal access to reproductive health for individual health, family well-being, broader economic development and a healthy planet. You can watch the recorded speech online at www.icpd2015.org. The speech signals that the U.S. government has rejoined the worldwide commitment to health and development goals laid out in the 1994 International Conference on Population Development (ICPD), and reaffirmed in the Millennium Development Goals. It was during the groundbreaking ICPD meeting that 179 nations laid out an ambitious plan of action to improve health and achieve sustainable development by focusing on individual health needs and human rights, especially for women and girls, by 2015. A broad coalition of health and development organizations, including CEDPA, applauded today’s statement by Secretary Clinton and called for greater efforts to advance the ICPD goals. You can read the NGO statement here. CEDPA was present at full force at the conference with the largest non-governmental delegation in attendance, advocating for programs that meet the real-life needs of women and their families. The attendees of the ICPD conference agreed that the best road to sustainable development was to invest in universal education and sexual and reproductive health care and rights. The world leaders committed to $21.7 billion per year by 2015. The “Cairo Consensus,” as the ICPD call to action is sometimes known, focuses on nine target areas of investment: improved family planning and reproductive health services, meeting the need for contraception, improved children’s health, saving mother’s lives, increasing access to education, giving greater attention to young people, improving the status of women, expanding live choices for young women and involving men. Those investments are delivering real results. Millions of lives in the world’s poorest places have been saved through proven, effective and affordable programs. Maternal mortality rates in Egypt have dropped by more than 50 percent as contraceptive usage increased from 23 percent in 1980 to 57 percent in 2005. In Mexico, the infant mortality rate fell by 70 percent between 1970 and 2005, as the use of modern contraceptives nearly doubled. Similar results have been seen in Bangladesh, Thailand, and elsewhere. Success can be seen in every corner of the world. But, there is more to be done to meet the 2015 deadline. Even with the success, one woman dies needlessly in pregnancy or childbirth every minute of every day, and six million more suffer injury, illness or disability. There are 33 million people living with HIV. Each year, between 70 to 80 million unintended pregnancies occur in the developing world. The means to reach the ICPD deadline are available. Success depends on empowering women, too many of whom do not currently have the ability to make choices about their own health, and on reaching the largest generation of young people about to enter their reproductive years—about 1.5 billion people—with the information and services they need. Read more about CEDPA's commitment to reproductive health. |
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