14th International Dialogue

In September 2015, Member States of the United Nations have adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which brings forward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These universal goals demand action by all stakeholders to achieve a world that is sustainable, peaceful and prosperous. Although not fully captured in the SDGs, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) remain central to this vision. The experiences in implementing previous goal sets related to SRHR, such as the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), have shown that reaching such goals is very challenging. The 2030 Agenda with its focus on interdependency and inclusiveness serves as a new guide to align efforts for the universal realisation of SRHR and more generally gender equality and the right to health.

At the global level, the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) will serve as the main instrument to follow-up and review the status of implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The precise format for doing so is still under development at the time of preparing this concept note. But as agreed in the 2030 Agenda, the HLPF will work with the global SDG indicators that will be agreed upon at the UN General Assembly in September of this year.

Furthermore, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) have revised their methods of work in the past years in order to contribute to the follow-up and review of the SDGs at the HLPF. Both commissions are of high relevance for advancing SRHR.

The Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health was launched in September 2015 as a roadmap to achieve the health-related SDGs. The Global Strategy includes a Unified Accountability Framework (UAF), which is a mechanism to drive accountability for results, resources and rights, with the ambition to harmonise global efforts. The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) has been tasked with coordinating the implementation of the UAF.

In parallel, the UN Secretary General appointed an Independent Accountability Panel (IAP), producing an annual ‘State of Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health’ report. This report will provide the world with the best available evidence and an independent analysis of progress, with recommendations for how to accelerate realisation of the Global Strategy.

It still remains to be seen how the different global follow-up and review frameworks will feed into each other; how they will relate to national and regional implementation strategie sand review mechanisms; and if and how it can be ensured that the SRHR related goals and targets are covered at the different levels.

The primary obligation to provide adequate social services and to ensure the protection, promotion and fulfilment of human rights however lies with governments. Good governance requires states to lay the groundwork for the implementation of development strategies by means of legislation, policies, budgets, information and service delivery in a range of areas. Thus, citizens should have the right and opportunity to demand transparency and hold their governments accountable through participation and advocacy, in order to ensure that commitments of governments are implemented appropriately down to grassroots and community levels. Governments need to create and fund appropriate mechanisms to ensure the engagement of the civil society so that they can be held accountable.