Foreword
CHOICE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD.
It can rapidly improve the well-being of women
and girls, transform families and societies, and accelerate global development.
The extent to which couples and individuals
have real choices about whether and when to have children, and how many
children to have, also has a direct impact on fertility levels. Where people
are able to make these decisions for themselves, they tend to choose smaller
families. Where choices are constrained, they tend to have families that are
either large or very small, sometimes with no children at all.
No country can yet claim to have made
reproductive rights a reality for all. Choices are limited for far too many
women. And this means that there are still millions of people who are having
more—or fewer—children than they would like, with implications not only for
individuals, but also for communities, institutions, economies, labour markets
and entire nations.
For some, the pursuit of reproductive rights is
thwarted by health systems that fail to provide essential services, such as
contraceptives. For others, economic barriers, including poor-quality,
lowpaying jobs and an absence of childcare, make it next to impossible to start
or expand a family. Underlying these and other obstacles is persistent gender
inequality, which denies women the power to make fundamental decisions in life.
In the 1994 Programme of Action of the
International Conference on Population and Development, governments committed
to enabling people to make informed choices about their sexual and reproductive
health as a matter of fundamental human rights. Now, almost 25 years later,
this continues to require ensuring that individuals have access to the means to
decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development reinforces these principles by making reproductive health and rights a specific aim. In fact, reproductive rights
are integral to realizing all the Sustainable Development Goals. THAT IS
THE POWER OF CHOICE.
The way forward is the full realization of
reproductive rights, for every individual
and couple, no matter where or how they live, or how much they earn.
This includes dismantling all the barriers—whether economic, social or
institutional—that inhibit free and informed choice.
In the end, our success will not just come in
reaching what we imagine is ideal fertility. The real measure of progress is
people themselves: especially the well-being of women and girls, their
enjoyment of their rights and full equality, and the life choices that they are
free to make.
Dr. Natalia Kanem
Executive Director
UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund
Read THE POWER OF CHOICE REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS AND THE DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION
Corporate Author: UNFPA
Publication Year: 2018
Theme:Access to SRHR Services
URL:https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/UNFPA_PUB_2018_EN_SWP.pdf
