Family Care International >> Programs & Issues >> Global Sexual and Reproductive Health

From its inception, Family Care International (FCI) has helped to shape the global consensus on the need for women-centered, rights-based, comprehensive reproductive health services.

Consensus documents that set goals and targets for the enhancement of women's reproductive and sexual rights and women's empowerment include: the International Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993; the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo; the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing; and their five-year reviews, which took the form of United Nations' General Assembly Special Sessions in 1998, 1999 and 2000 respectively.

In addition to these consensus documents, heads of state and government from around the world included two key goals related to sexual and reproductive health in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals: to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity, and to combat HIV/AIDS.

Advancing the Cairo Commitments

FCI advocates for continued commitment to the ICPD Programme of Action at regional and international-level intergovernmental meetings. In 2004, FCI worked with the International Planned Parenthood Federation and Population Action International to revitalize support for the ICPD Programme of Action through the Countdown 2015 campaign. This strategy included:

A Global Roundtable in London (2004).
A Magazine Countdown 2015: Sexual & Reproductive Health and Rights for All with articles from leaders in the sexual and reproductive health field.
A Global Report Card analyzing countries' progress towards the ICPD goals.
A communications and media campaign.

To ensure that international commitments are clearly understood, FCI publishes briefing cards and other summaries of agreements reached at various international meetings. Further, FCI advocates for the use of the ICPD goal, universal access to reproductive health by 2015, as a target to measure progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Sexual and Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals

The eight Millennium Development Goals are the primary framework for shaping development strategies. Developing countries are creating "MDG-ized" development plans; bilateral and multilateral donors are channeling funds toward programs aimed at achieving the MDGs; while UN agencies are incorporating the goals into their programming.

In 2005, FCI and 40 NGO advocates from the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) community, mobilized to advocate for the use of the ICPD goal: universal access to reproductive health through the primary health system by 2015, as a target to measure progress towards the achievement of the MDGs.

The strategy included:

Publication and distribution of 35,000 Millenium Development Goals and Sexual & Reproductive Health briefing cards on sexual and reproductive health and the MDGs.
Background papers and E-Bulletins to keep advocates informed about the Millennium+5 review process and opportunities for advocacy.
Advocacy at the national, regional, and international levels throughout the Millennium+5 review process and beyond.

The briefing cards raised awareness among governments, NGOs and others of the importance of sexual and reproductive health for development and the contribution of sexual and reproductive health toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

In early October 2007, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the inclusion of universal access to reproductive health by 2015 as a new target under MDG 5 to improve maternal health. The General Assembly's adoption of this approach is an important advance that will allow countries' progress on SRHR to be monitored through the MDG framework.

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UN Adds Universal Reproductive Health as Millennium Development Target

October 2, 2006 - The United Nations General Assembly gave its endorsement this week to a longtime FCI goal, that of including universal access to reproductive health by 2015 as one of the international community's Millennium Development targets.

The Assembly formally approved the Secretary-General's annual Report on the work of the Organization, which summarizes UN progress and challenges in the past year and recommends that the reproductive health objective be adopted as one of four new global development targets. The other three are decent work for youth and women, universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment, and preserving biodiversity.

The move follows two years of advocacy by FCI on the need to integrate sexual and reproductive health objectives into the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on grounds that better global health and poverty reduction cannot be achieved otherwise. Before the 2005 World Summit, FCI released its Millennium Development Goals and Sexual and Reproductive Health Briefing Cards, a set of easy-access fact sheets designed to help UN delegates, advocates and government officials work these concepts into their development plans and policies.

The General Assembly's adoption of this approach is an important advance that will allow countries' progress on sexual and reproductive health and rights to be monitored through the MDG framework.

Sexual and Reproductive Health in the Lancet

The Lancet, a premiere health journal, produced two special editions in 2006 on the important topics of Maternal Survival and Sexual and Reproductive Health. FCI produced an Executive Summary for the Sexual and Reproductive Health Series (also available in Spanish and French), to more broadly disseminate the key themes and recommendations of the Series.

For more on the series please visit The Lancet.

FCI publications focus on how to get policies implemented

FCI has just released Mobilising Communities on Young People’s Health and Rights: An Advocacy Toolkit for Programme Managers that carefully lays out the steps in designing and launching an advocacy strategy to ensure that existing government commitments are translated into concrete programs and services. Mobilising Communities on Young People’s Health and Rights: An Advocacy Training Guide is a companion piece to the Toolkit. The Training Guide was developed to strengthen the skills of grassroots community-level groups, networks, and organizations to design and plan an advocacy campaign in support of young people’s health and rights. Available in English.

Living Testimony: Obstetric Fistula and Inequities in Maternal Health

Obstetric fistula is an injury to the birth canal that stems from prolonged labour. It has devastating physical and psychological effects on women’s lives. Living Testimony: Obstetric Fistula and Inequities in Maternal Health, produced by Family Care International and UNFPA, presents recommendations for policy makers, programmers, and researchers seeking to strengthen fistula prevention and treatment programmes. Available in English and French.

Visit our Publications section to view our complete online catalogue of training and informational materials.

Sexual and reproductive ill health accounts for one-third of the global burden of disease of women of childbearing age.
20 million women who would like to be able to use contraception for spacing and limiting births are unable to do so because they lack access to information, education, and counseling on family planning, cannot access contraceptives, or face other social, economic, or cultural barriers.
More than 300 million cases of curable STIs occur each year – of these, at least two-thirds are men and women under 25.
HIV infection rates are twice as high among young people who do not finish primary school. If every girl and boy received a complete primary education, at least seven million new cases of HIV could be prevented in a decade.

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On principle and by preference, we are independent and thus able to address all aspects of women’s reproductive health, and work where others cannot.
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