About 25 years ago, a sweeping consensus on population and development was reached at a landmark meeting in Cairo -- the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, or ICPD.
For the first time ever, governments -- 179 countries in all, including Thailand -- unanimously agreed after years of debate and negotiation, that individual rights and choices should be at the heart of development, with a focus on sexual and reproductive health in particular, firmly underpinned by gender equality and women's empowerment as well as the broader agenda of human rights.
The ICPD Programme of Action reflected a huge change from earlier attitudes and policies wherein governments sought to control population growth, fearing overpopulation, especially in developing countries. ICPD shifted that thinking -- paving the way for more rights-based family planning and other government policies, and linked them to the overall development of societies and nations.
In Cairo, we imagined a future in which every pregnancy is intended because every woman and every girl would have autonomy over her own body, and be able to choose whether, when and with whom to have children.
We imagined a world where no woman would die giving life, because no matter where she was from, her socioeconomic or legal status, she would have access to quality maternal health care.
We imagined a time where everyone would live in safety, free from violence and with respect and dignity, and where no girl or woman would be forced to marry or have her genitals mutilated.
Since 1994, governments, civil society organisations, activists and institutions like UNFPA have rallied behind the Programme of Action and pledged to tear down barriers that have stood between women and girls and their health, rights and power to map out their own futures.
25 years later, the international observance of World Population Day, which falls today, offers an important opportunity to shine a light on both what's been achieved as well as the unfinished businesses that remain under ICPD -- and to mobilise a renewed global movement to accelerate its implementation.
Millions of women now have the power of choice to access family planning. But more than 214 million women still lack access to modern contraception.
Millions of women now enjoy safe pregnancies and childbirth with the assistance of skilled midwives and birth attendants. But there are still more than 300,000 preventable maternal deaths each year -- 85,000 of them in Asia-Pacific alone.
Millions of women now are empowered to stand up for themselves in what remains a patriarchal world. But one-in-three women still experiences some form of violence in her lifetime -- usually at the hands of her husband or intimate partner -- and each day some 40,000 girls are forced to marry far too young.
Like all transformational movements, ICPD didn't happen overnight. The Programme of Action came from advocacy and negotiation, influenced significantly by major social shifts, especially women's rights and civil rights movements that had emerged in prior decades. The stars were aligned in 1994, leading to consensus in Cairo.
The world of today is very different. At a time of increasing conservatism and polarisation, we are seeing significant pushback on women's rights, including on essential health services, even in countries that have long been regarded as champions of women's rights.
We urgently need to rebuild the ICPD movement and call for 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.
This means reaching out to a new generation of political leaders, civil society and community leaders to forge a coalition with those who are already ICPD champions as well as reaching out to those that still need to be convinced, using high-quality data to help identify the gaps and where the needs are the greatest, and end the invisibility of those furthest behind. Our tapestry of diversity should be a facilitator, and not an obstacle to progress.
Even as we work to bring governments and civil society together, we must be mindful that the gains achieved over many years, the hard-won victories for rights and choices, can never be taken for granted. These gains, these victories, are often tenuous and can be swiftly reversed.
This November, UNFPA is convening all stakeholders at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25, where we will -- via honest and open dialogue -- seek renewed commitments to complete the unfinished business.
The cost of inaction is simply too high -- more women and girls dying, more unintended pregnancies, more unsafe abortions, more pregnant girls shamed out of school and the potential of individuals, societies and indeed, entire countries, squandered.
Let's do our very best to shape a world where promises made are promises kept. Reproductive rights and choices are a reality for all. This is the world we all want. And, if we work together, it is the world we all can have.
Bjorn Andersson is Asia-Pacific Regional Director of the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, the United Nations' sexual and reproductive health agency and the steward of the ICPD Programme of Action.