The year 2019 marks two important milestones in the field of reproductive health:

50 years since UNFPA began operations, and 25 years since the landmark International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo.

These two events - the launch of the first United Nations agency dedicated to addressing population growth and the reproductive health needs of the world’s people, and the declaration of a global commitment to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights - have fundamentally shaped the lives of women and families, and the societies in which they live, in ways measurable and immeasurable, profound and trivial, permanent and fleeting.

Activists, advocates, public health specialists and many others have pushed relentlessly for the transformations we see around us today, but much remains to be done.

What the future holds in terms of changes in population growth, contraceptive use and sexual and reproductive health and rights will both determine and be determined by the ability of women and girls to achieve their full potential as members of their societies. And this will be determined, in no small part, by how the world takes forward the achievements and addresses the shortfalls of the ICPD to date.