UNITED NATIONS, New York – This year marks the 25th anniversary of the ICPD – a milestone in reproductive health and rights. But what was the ICPD? And what does it mean for your rights today?
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali (second from left) and UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Nafis Sadik, attend the ICPD. © UN Photo
WHAT WAS THE ICPD?
ICPD stands for the International Conference on Population and Development, a 1994 meeting in Cairo where 179 governments adopted a revolutionary Programme of Action and called for women’s reproductive health and rights to take centre stage in national and global development efforts.
Specifically, the Programme of Action called for all people to have access to comprehensive reproductive health care, including voluntary family planning, safe pregnancy and childbirth services, and the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections.
It also recognized that reproductive health and women’s empowerment are intertwined, and that both are necessary for the advancement of society.
“The full and equal participation of women in civil, cultural, economic, political and social life, at the national, regional and international levels, and the eradication of all forms of discrimination on grounds of sex, are priority objectives of the international community,” the Programme of Action affirmed.
Today, “ICPD” is often used as a shorthand to refer to the global consensus that reproductive health and rights are human rights and that these are a precondition for women’s empowerment, and that women’s equality is a precondition for securing the well-being and prosperity of all people.
Young parents leaving a maternity hospital in Almaty © UNFPA Kazakhstan Photo
HOW DID THE ICPD CHANGE THE WORLD?
In the 1960s, as mortality rates declined around the world, some researchers and policymakers grew panicked that population growth would outstrip natural resources, leading to famine and societal collapse. Governments responded: some studied the impact of population growth on economies and the environment, others expanded family planning programmes, and a few took actions, sometimes coercive ones, to lower fertility rates.
The ICPD Programme of Action brought the global community together and reflected a new consensus about response to population growth. It firmly established that the rights and dignity of individuals, rather than numerical population targets, were the best way for individuals to realize their own fertility goals. Furthermore, governments acknowledged that these rights are essential for global development.
The ICPD represented a resounding endorsement that securing reproductive health, individual rights and women’s empowerment is the obligation of every country and community.
WHY ARE PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT IT 25 YEARS LATER?
The United Nations reports on the progress made in fulfilling the mandate of the ICPD Programme of Action. At the annual Commission on Population and Development, the UN reviews the state of sexual and reproductive health and rights around the world. This includes progress made, or ground lost, in efforts to empower women, educate girls, and eliminate gender-based violence and harmful practices.
These annual reviews have illustrated just how much work remains to be done. Despite 25 years of agreement, a lot of progress has stalled, and by some measures has been reversed.
Voluntary access to modern contraception has increased by 25 per cent since 1994, and the quality of family planning services has also greatly improved. Yet hundreds of millions of women are still not using modern contraceptives to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
Preventable maternal deaths have declined by 40 per cent, but the world is still miles from the ICPD Programme of Action’s target to reduce maternal deaths to fewer than 75 per 100,00 live births.
There has also been widespread action to end harmful practices like female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage. In countries with high prevalence of FGM, for example, the proportion of girls subject to the practice fell from 49 per cent to 31 per cent. Yet because of population growth, the total number of women and girls affected has actually grown.
Nina Kayupova was part of Kazakhstan's delegation at ICPD in Cairo in 1994
SO WHAT ARE PEOPLE DOING ABOUT IT?
This November, governments, advocates, health organizations, women’s and youth activists and others will gather in Kenya for the Nairobi Summit. There, they will seek clear commitments that will advance the goals of the ICPD and secure the rights and dignity of all.
KAZAKHSTAN AND ICPD
Madam Nina Kayupova, an Obstetrician-Gynaecologist, Professor and Doctor of Medical Sciences, former Senator of the Parliament of Kazakhstan and a distinguished member of Kazakhstan’s Academy of Sciences, was one of eight delegates representing Kazakhstan at the historic ICPD meeting 25 years ago. At one of UNFPA’s recent events dedicated to the anniversary of ICPD Madame Nina Kayupova was one of the keynote speakers.
“There were 10 thousand participants at the Conference. We debated every figure, every letter and every sentence of the Programme of Action. Of course, population and development is a very topical and sensitive issue. This is because population, the quality of people, quality of human resources and workforce define sustainable development of a country,” says Nina Kayupova.
Nina Kayupova at the event dedicated to the launch of State of the World Population report in 2019
Nina Kayupova reflected on the impact of the ICPD Programme of Action on Kazakhstan 25 years later. She emphasized that, with young people aged 15-24 comprising 15% of Kazakhstan’s population, reproductive status of youth will define the future of the whole country.
“That’s why today we should be talking not only about reproductive health, but about an entire system known as reproductive potential, says Nina Kayupova. – What does it mean? It encompasses reproductive rights and reproductive health. In Kazakhstan the highest activity in terms of birth-rate is observed in the age group of 25 to 29, peaking at 25, which translates into 180 births per every 1,000 women of this age group.”
Nina Kayupova emphasized that ICPD had led to a number of policy-level advancements in many countries, including in Kazakhstan.
«There are 14 chapters in the ICPD Programme of Action, and the main chapter is devoted to family, the role of family, status of women, motherhood and childhood and reproductive health,” said Nina Kayupova. - «However, what was more important is how in 1995 the First President showed great wisdom and created the Council on Family, Women and Demographic Policy. Today’s successor of the Council is the National Commission for Women, Family and Demographic Policy, which continues working with the UN Population Fund. Another important event was when in 1996 Ms. Nafis Sadiq used the premises of our Republic Research Centre to hold a Conference for the Asia-Pacific region on the implementation of the Programme of Action of the Cairo Conference, involving 11 states. The fact that Dr. Nafis Sadiq chose Kazakhstan was not a chance decision. Very fruitful, exciting and creative work was done with UNFPA locally based on the reports which we produced after the Cairo Conference about what was done in each country.”
ROAD TO NAIROBI
On the 12-14 November 2019 Nairobi will host the Summit on ICPD25. The Nairobi Summit is an opportunity to take note of achievements made towards the ICPD and the remaining unfinished business.
If we cannot achieve the goals laid out in the ICPD Programme of Action, such as providing access to contraception or eliminating gender-based violence, then it will be impossible to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. As such the key objectives will be:
● Obtain strong political commitment for the validity of the Cairo ICPD agenda.
● Create political and financial momentum to advance the ICPD agenda, as an indispensable part of Agenda 2030, in particular around reducing (at a minimum) preventable maternal mortality, unmet need for family planning and eliminating violence against women and harmful practices.
● Offer an inclusive platform for a broad range of Member States and other stakeholders to come together around the universally applicable principle of rights and choices for all.
WHAT ARE THE EXPECTED OUTCOMES OF THE NAIROBI SUMMIT?
Participants and stakeholders will be asked to prepare and register commitments to advancing the ICPD agenda and inform concrete actions for collective and individual action. Indicatively, commitments could include, inter alia:
Coalitions/partnerships between governments, private sector and CSOs to implement strengthened data collection systems, strengthened supply chains for family planning commodities; improvements in health system strengthening and referrals; policies to roll out age-appropriate Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) and support for its implementation, legislation protecting women and girls from violence and harmful practices, programmes to promote gender equality and reduction in violence; accelerated training and programmes to support the deployment of professionally trained midwives etc.
