WHY MUST SRHR BE INTEGRATED INTO POST 2015 DEVELOPMENT AGENDA?

Today, adolescents (10-19) and youth (15-24) make up 1.8 billion of the entire global population (UNICEF, 2012). African youth in the age group of 15 – 24 account for 19 percent to that of the rest of world within the same age group (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, 2015). During the transition from childhood to adulthood, young people enter their reproductive year thus requiring access to sexual and reproductive health information and services. This information and services ensures adolescents and youth’s access to ‘use contraception, prevent unintended pregnancy and decide if and when to have children’ (United Nations Population Fund , 2012). It is argued that these investments in young people’s health especially girls ensures their greater access to education and employment opportunities (Ibid, 2012).

In full recognition and endorsement of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), African civil society call for the full integration of all the 17 proposed sustainable development goals into the national and regional development plans of all African countries post September 2015.

Particularly for the integration of SRHR in the Post 2015 development agenda, countries must focus on:

Goal 3 on ensuring healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages;

Goal 4 on ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong education for all;

Goal 5 on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls;

Goal 10 on reducing inequalities with and among countries;

Goal 16 on promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, providing access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institution at all levels, and

Goal 17 on strengthening the means of implementation and revitalization of the global partnership for sustainable development (United Nations, 2015). 

These proposed goals are of critical importance to ensuring healthy lives for all especially adolescents and young people and for the empowerment of women and girls and their wellbeing including sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Read the guide here: AAI Arrow SRHR Integration in 2030 Agenda an African Civil Society Guide