SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE

Discrimination derails service delivery

This November marks the third anniversary of the landmark 2019 Nairobi Summit on the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD25), with a groundbreaking report that calls for better services and maps a far-reaching justice agenda.

Entitled, ‘Sexual and reproductive justice as the vehicle to deliver the Nairobi Summit commitments,’ the report stipulates steps to deliver on people’s rights and choices.

More than 1 300 commitments were made by 140 Governments including Botswana, civil society organisations and other stakeholders from 172 countries and territories.

Three transformative results: zero preventable maternal deaths, zero unmet need for family planning, and zero gender-based violence and harmful practices, were identified as steps central to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. At the Nairobi Summit, Botswana identified four commitments as game changers in the implementation of the commitments made towards achieving the ICPD agenda.

These included strengthening access to family planning, reducing maternal deaths, reducing Gender Based Violence (GBV), as well as providing quality, timely and disaggregated data. Botswana’s intention is to reduce maternal deaths from 143.2 in 100 000 births to less than 70 in 100 000 births through capacity building and allocation of financial and human resources towards maternal health by 2030. The country also plans to ensure that information and services, quality, affordable and safe modern contraceptives are available at all service points through capacity building of health care workers on integration of family planning services from 350 to 1000 by 2030.The new report acknowledges that sexual and reproductive justice requires dismantling discrimination, challenging the unequal distribution of power and ending marginalisation. This process tackles multiple, often intersecting kinds of discrimination, including those related to gender, race, ethnicity, income level, location and disability. “For all countries, continued development and realisation of the SDGs depends on achieving sexual and reproductive justice,” said the Co-Chair of the High-Level Commission on the Nairobi Summit Dr Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, also former President of Tanzania.

The report outlines how to use a sexual and reproductive justice framework to analyse the conditions in a community and broader society that determine sexual and reproductive destiny, going beyond individual choices and access to services. It provides a rallying point for social movements to establish momentum powerful enough to propel necessary changes. Based on tracking numerous country and global commitments made at the Nairobi Summit, the report finds increasing alignment with sexual and reproductive justice through measures paying explicit attention to marginalised and vulnerable populations and a slew of new reproductive rights legislation.

A high number of commitments prioritising sexual and gender-based violence offers a potent entry point to promote sexual and reproductive justice. It also acknowledges that some improvement is evident in meeting unmet need for family planning. But no region has registered positive movement towards zero preventable maternal deaths. Almost all countries have committed to sexual and reproductive health and rights, notably at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development. Despite signs of progress, rights and choices remain compromised on multiple fronts, however, and the pressures are mounting fast. Authoritarianism, far-right rhetoric and populist movements are on the rise, pushing back gains. COVID-19, food insecurity and climate change are worsening disparities and further compromising human dignity, security and well-being.

The UNFPA will launch the report at a high-level event in Zanzibar, Tanzania, this week. Since September 2020, the High-Level Commission annually tracks progress on the set of 12 Global Commitments made at the Nairobi Summit and provides guidance and political backing for meaningful follow-up.