A 25 year review

At the landmark International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994, representatives of 179 governments gathered in Cairo and adopted the ICPD Programme of Action, which recognized reproductive health and the empowerment of women and gender equality as pillars of sustainable development.

Twenty five years later, in November 2019, the Nairobi Summit, also known as ICPD+25, was held in Nairobi, Kenya, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Cairo conference at the same time the international community was working towards meeting the UN's Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Government of Kenya hosted the Nairobi Summit, which brought together governments, United Nations agencies, private sector organizations, women's groups and youth networks to discuss and agree on initiatives to further advance the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action.

The Summit opened with a review of all that had been accomplished since the first International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994. The world has lowered maternal mortality and advanced gender equality – but not nearly enough, attendees reflected.

Donor countries pledged around $1 billion in support to sexual and reproductive health and gender equality programmes. Additionally, some $8 billion in combined new pledges were announced to achieve zero preventable maternal deaths, zero unmet need for family planning, and zero gender-based violence and harmful practices by 2030. A wide range of partners, from health care and technology companies to private foundations, international NGOs and sports leaders stepped up with commitments to advance women's, children’s and adolescent health and well-being, including sexual and reproductive health and rights.

At the Summit, the United Nations system, through the Deputy Secretary-General, committed the following:

To uphold the human rights of all people, including their right to sexual and reproductive health, and to accelerate all efforts in support of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, with a particular emphasis on the most vulnerable and disadvantaged among us, to ensure that no one is left behind;

To intensify system-wide efforts to eliminate all preventable maternal and child mortality and morbidities, to eradicate gender-based violence against women, girls and youth, and to eliminate the unmet need for family planning that constrains the rights and wellbeing of millions of women and young people and limits their potential;

To support investments in the capabilities of adolescents and youth that uphold their rights, and create the necessary conditions through which they can fulfill their potential by guaranteeing access to quality education and appropriate skills at every level, including access to comprehensive sexuality education and youth-friendly services that ensure their health and empowerment, as a necessary precondition for the realization of the demographic dividend, upon which the inclusive economic growth and sustainability of much of the world depends.

To support national governments in the full and accelerated implementation of the ICPD agenda, in line with national implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, by leveraging synergies across the UN system, including through enhanced alignment and coordination in the work of the United Nations Country Teams as a result of the UN Reform process.;

To ensure that no one is left behind, and that we reach the furthest behind first, through the timely and coordinated production and dissemination of disaggregated data, to further support national governments in the elaboration of data-driven policies, strategies and programmes geared towards the fulfilment of the ICPD agenda as a critical contribution to the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs.

To incorporate the outcomes of the Nairobi Summit as an integral component in the Decade of Action to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals.