Global reproductive health and rights: Is ICPD enough?

This paper summarizes the key findings of a forthcoming book, Global Reproductive Health and Rights: the Way Forward (University of Pennsylvania Press). We argue for the salience of ICPD's health and human rights framework, despite the current enchantment with vertical campaigns and funding for specific health issues. Much of reproductive health is not a single disease or health intervention amenable to a vertical approach; ICPD emphasizes underlying social conditions, i.e. those that foster women's capacities to make decisions about their reproductive health.

The book demonstrates that the conceptual and lived gains of ICPD have been enormous; ICPD successfully joined underlying social determinants, health systems, policies, laws and human rights related to reproductive health. The current architecture of global health has fragmented the ICPD framework. However, we interpret reorganization of global health as a networking of ICPD's nodes—no longer organized according to the numbered paragraphs of the Programme of Action, but strengthened and connected through coordination and coalition building as framed by “global health.” We see key opportunities to advance reproductive health and rights by linking to the current poverty reduction and economic justice agenda and by further engaging with the HIV/AIDS community.