World Population Day 2019 marks the 25 year-

milestone in reproductive health and rights

Published: 10 July 2019

The Commission on Population and Development (POPCOM) enjoins other National

Government Agencies, institutions, the academe, and other developmental partners in
the celebration of the World Population Day (WPD) 2019. It will be celebrated on July 11
with the global theme of “25 years of the International Conference on Population and
Development (ICPD).

WPD, which seeks to focus the attention on the urgency and importance of population
issues, was established by the then Governing Council of the United Nations
Development Programme in 1989, an outgrowth of the interest generated by the Day of
the Five Billion, which was observed on July 11, 1987.
This year’s World Population Day calls for global attention to the unfinished business of
the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), a 1994
meeting in Cairo, where 179 countries recognized that reproductive health and gender
equality are essential for achieving sustainable development. The countries agreed that
population policies must empower couples and individuals -- especially women -- to
decide the size of their families and enable them to decide by giving them the necessary
information and services to carry out their decisions.

A revolutionary Programme of Action (POA) which called for women’s reproductive health
and rights to take center stage in national and global development efforts was then
adopted. It called for all people to have access to comprehensive reproductive health
care, including voluntary family planning, safe pregnancy and childbirth services, and the
prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). It also recognized that
reproductive health and women’s empowerment are intertwined, and that both are
necessary for the advancement of society.

“The full and equal participation of women in civil, cultural, economic, political, and social
life, at the national, regional and international levels, and the eradication of all forms of
discrimination on grounds of sex, are priority objectives of the international community,”
the POA affirmed.

The ICPD POA firmly established that the rights and dignity of individuals, rather than
achieving the desired population, were the best way for individuals to realize their own
fertility goals. Furthermore, the governments also acknowledged that these rights are
essential for global development.

Today, ICPD often refers to the “global consensus that reproductive health and rights are
human rights, that these are a precondition for women’s empowerment, and that women’s
equality is a precondition for securing the well-being and prosperity of all people.”

Since the adoption of the ICPD POA in 1994, our country has persistently worked to
promote sexual and reproductive health and rights, as well as gender equality and women
empowerment. There was also a dramatic shift on the discourse on population and
development from reducing population growth rates to focusing on the rights and health
and well-being of individuals.

The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health (RPRH) Law incorporated the
ICPD’s definition of reproductive health. It is with this notion that empowering a woman is
key to achieving reproductive health.

Since its passage in 2012, the RPRH Law has improved the availability and access to
health and social services, especially to the Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged
Areas (GIDA) in the country. And yet many are still not able to enjoy fully the benefits of
these development programs.
Thus, it is imperative for everyone -- leaders, policy makers, institutions, non-government
organizations, and others -- to work together hand in hand to implement the ICPD POA
and make reproductive health and rights a reality for all Filipinos.

As part of the celebration, POPCOM-I will be conducting the “Kapihan sa Ilocos,” a press
conference to be held on July 10, 2019 in San Fernando City, La Union. The presscon
shall focus on ICPD and the progress that has been made 25 years later since its
founding. (POPCOM-1)