Celebrating
30 years of
progress

Celebrating  30 years of progress

Over the past 30 years, remarkable gains have been made in the achievement of sexual and reproductive health and rights for all.

SWOP 2024

At the 1994 International Conference for Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, the world came together to define a bold agenda: to put people, their dignity, and their sexual and reproductive rights at the heart of development.

We take this for granted today – but 30 years ago, States agreeing to uphold the sexual and reproductive rights of all people was groundbreaking. It meant recognizing the role of the health system as an enabler of human rights, and, as UNFPA’s then-Executive Director Nafis Sadik said, “liberating women from a system of values which insists reproduction is their only function”.

30 years of progress

International women’s and feminist movements have spearheaded the inclusion of women’s rights in global development agendas. This timeline illustrates how the ICPD brought together the population and development agenda and feminist movements to consolidate support for sexual and reproductive health and rights globally.

1954

1954

First World Population Conference, Rome

1974

1974

Third World Population Conference, Bucharest

Feminist researchers used human rights frameworks to carve a role for themselves

1975

1975

The United Nations Decade for Women begins

1976

1976

Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is drafted and approved

CEDAW is drafted and approved

1977

1977

First International Women and Health Meeting (IWHM), Rome

First International Women and Health Meeting, Rome

1979

1979

CEDAW is adopted by the General Assembly

1981

1981

Third International Women and Health Meeting, Geneva

1984

1984

Fourth International Women and Health Meeting, Amsterdam

International Conference on Population, Mexico

1990

1990

Preparations for ICPD 1994 in Cairo begin

Women’s organizations mobilize to influence the existing population agenda

1992

1992

Women’s Declaration on Population Policies is signed

1994

1994

International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), Cairo

Preparatory Conference, Rio de Janeiro

1995

1995

Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing

1999

1999

ICPD+5: Youth movements are engaged to help advance the ICPD agenda among a new generation

2000

2000

The Millenium Declaration is adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, followed by the Millenium Devolopment Goals

2005

2005

MDGS+5: Advocates succeed in having universal access to reproductive health included in the Millenium Development Goals

2014

2014

ICPD+20: Once again, experts, feminists, youth, NGOs and governments mobilize around the ICPD agenda

2015

2015

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is adopted, leading to the Sustainable Development Goals

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is adopted, leading to the SDG Goals

The #NiUnaMenos movement emerges across Latin America, calling for an end to femicide and ultimately leading to the Green Wave

2017

2017

The SheDecides movement is launched in support of reproductive health and rights, and the #MeToo movement erupts in response to millions of women decrying sexual abuse and harassment

The SheDecides movement is launched and the #MeToo movement erupts

2019

2019

Nairobi Summit on ICPD25

2021

2021

The Generation Equality Forum takes place

Women garment workers organize against gender-based violence

What women workers wanted was for the labour movement to ensure gender-related issues are part of the core agenda; it’s not just about wages.

Nandita Shivakumar, India Read story
What have we achieved?
  • Between 2000 and 2020, global maternal mortality declined by 34 per cent, a success story that can be credited largely to better access to skilled and emergency obstetric care.
  • There has been a 19 per cent decline in the unintended pregnancy rate between 1990 and 2019.
  • From 1990 to 2021, the number of women using modern contraception doubled.
  • Births among girls aged 15 to 19 years have fallen by around a third since 2000.
  • HIV infection rates have dropped significantly. The number of new infections in 2021 was almost one-third fewer than in 2010.
  • The proportion of girls subjected to female genital mutilation has decreased significantly due to shifting attitudes about the practice.
  • An historic 162 countries have passed laws against domestic violence.
  • At the start of the AIDS pandemic, most countries criminalized same-sex sexuality, while today two-thirds of countries do not – and this progress may be accelerating, with more countries eliminating punitive laws in 2022 than in any single year in the past 25 years.
SWOP 2024

What is the ICPD?

In 2024, the world marks the thirtieth anniversary of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).

The 1994 conference produced a watershed global agreement putting people at the centre of development, one that committed to realizing better health, rights and choices for all. It affirmed a vision of human potential that has inspired significant progress ever since, echoed and amplified by the global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development agreed in 2015.

The conference’s thirtieth anniversary is an opportunity to pivot health and social systems towards providing services that empower people, respect their diversity, uphold their dignity, and support them to realize their rights and bodily autonomy.

Syphilis highlights threat to health and human rights: stigma

Communities affected by illness must be engaged, not stigmatized.

Egypt Read story

Artwork

Textiles blur the boundary between art and function, practicality and beauty. Women’s movements have long used textiles to draw attention to a range of issues – from body positivity to reproductive justice and systemic racism. Contemporary artists and women-led textile collectives continue this tradition by producing artwork which reflects their local environments and traditions. As it has for thousands of years, textile art continues to offer women around the world the means to connect with previous and future generations of women in their families and communities.

We would like to thank the following textile artists who contributed to the artwork for this report:

  • Nneka Jones

    Nneka Jones

  • Rosie James

    Rosie James

  • Bayombe Endani, represented by the Advocacy Project

    Bayombe Endani, represented by the Advocacy Project

  • Woza Moya

    Woza Moya

  • The Tally Assuit Women’s Collective, represented by the International Folk Art Market

    The Tally Assuit Women’s Collective, represented by the International Folk Art Market

  • Pankaja Sethi

    Pankaja Sethi