World Population Day 2019:  UNFPA calls for recommitment to women’s reproductive health rights

The global community will Thursday commemorate the 2019 World Population Day; the UN’s annual event aimed at creating awareness about the consequence of population issues including family planning, female sexual reproductive health and rights of women across the world.

Every year, July 11 is globally observed as World Population Day, established in 1989 by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and which seeks to raise awareness on global population growth which has now clocked 7.7 billion in April, 2019.

“On this World Population Day, I call on all of us – governments, civil society, communities, and people from all sectors and walks of life – to be bold and courageous, to do what is right for women and girls around the world, to make real the possibilities that come with completing the unfinished business of Cairo,” says UNFPA Executive Director Natalia Kanem in a statement on the occasion of World Population Day 2019.

This year`s World Population Day also marks 25 years since the landmark International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) was held in Cairo, Egypt, in 1994  where “179 governments agreed that sexual and reproductive health is the foundation for sustainable development,” the statement added.

Kanem said since 1994, governments, activists, civil society organizations and institutions such as UNFPA, have rallied behind the Programme of Action and pledged to tear down barriers that have for long stood between women and girls and their reproductive health rights including the power to chart their own futures.

“Yet, despite considerable gains over the past 25 years, we still have a long way to go to live up to the promise of Cairo. Too many [women] continue to be left behind. Too many are still unable to enjoy their rights,” adds Kanem. “In Cairo, we imagined a future in which every pregnancy is intended because every woman and girl would have autonomy over her own body and be able to choose whether, when and with whom to have children.”