 Image by Carrie Z on Pixabay While the US Supreme Court’s decision to withdraw Roe v. Wade was still pending, three international women’s rights activists explained the risks involved in the limitation or outright prohibition of women’s access to safe abortion care in a digital dialogue with the Belgian ‘Parliamentarians for the 2030 Agenda’.
 Drop in medically assisted births. Photo by Amit Guar. The ‘Parliamentarians for the 2030 Agenda’ see to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, and Belgium’s role therein. During a webinar on September 29th the parliamentarians looked at where we are 5 years into the 2030 Agenda and enquired into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its realisation.
Prof. Dr. Olivier Degomme, Director of the International Centre for Reproductive Health (ICRH-Ghent University) took stock of the consequences of the pandemic on SDG3, ‘good health and well-being for all’. He showed the worldwide measurements have serious consequence for the access to contraceptives, family planning services and maternal health. Recent research of the WHO indicated that 90% of all countries reported interruptions of essential health services, and 68% reported interruptions of family planning services.  Photo by Joshua Hanson Guttmacher’s recently published 2019 “Adding it Up” report captures the shortages in sexual and reproductive health services in low and middle income countries (LMIC). The research institute calculated what it would take to bridge the gap.
 Photo by ev on Unsplash In September 2015 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, setting forward 17 Sustainable Development Goals, with no less then 169 targets to be achieved by 2030. What progress has been made since?
 MP Georges Dallemagne at a pro-SRHR rally in Manilla. Copyright EPF Georges Dallemagne, Belgian MP and member of the Parliamentarians for the 2030 Agenda visited the Philippines and learned about the country's outstanding challenges in living up to the needs of its young population.
The Philippines counts as many as 104 million people and is the 13th most populated country in the world. The country has seen an unprecedented growth of its population, in part due to the lack of access to family planning. The Philippines’ ultraconservative catholic church forbade access to contraception and while its influence is said to be slowly lessening, it is still having a huge impact on the family planning decisions of citizens. Only 40% of all young women have access to contraceptives and one in 10 girls has their first child before the age of 10.  Panel on health service delivery in mega-cities and slums. Copyright: Sensoa More than half of the world’s population currently lives in cities, with one in three living in slums. By 2030, the world is projected to have 43 megacities with more than 10 million inhabitants, most of them in developing regions. While one in eight people currently live in 33 megacities worldwide, close to half of the world’s urban dwellers reside in secondary cities with fewer than 500,000 inhabitants. These secondary cities, particularly in Africa and Asia, are also expected to grow very fast. Reason enough for Be-cause Health, Belgium’s platform on international health, to take the urban turn, and put the spotlight on how to ensure the right to health in cities. In tandem with the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Sensoa organised two panels that took on the challenges of health service delivery in mega-cities and urban slums.
On April 1st the UN Commission on Population and Development unanimously adopted a political declaration reaffirming the importance of the ICPD Program of Action. 2019 marks the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Program of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development by 179 UN Member States in Cairo, Egypt in 1994.
 EPF parliamentary delegation to PMNCH's partnersforum in New Delhi. Copyright EPF At the 2018 Partners’ Forum in New Delhi in December, the stakeholders of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) concluded with new commitments to address ongoing challenges with regard to the health of mothers, newborns and children worldwide. Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s announced a US$ 100 billion investment in health services by 2025.
A delegation of six MPs, including Belgian senator and member of Flemish parliament Orry Van de Wauwer, member of the Belgian ‘Parliamentarians for the 2030 Agenda’, participated in the PMNCH Forum. The PMNCH is an alliance of more than 1000 organisations in 192 countries of the sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health communities. The delegation’s visit began with a site visit to the Hamdard Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Hospital and Maternal Health Clinic, where the MPs shared good practices on improving maternal and child health in their respective countries. MPs also participated in a concurrent session on the role of parliamentarians in ensuring accountability for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ Health and the case of Universal health Coverage. Parliamentarians from all continents call for full implementation of ICPD Programme of Action28/11/2018
Ottawa, 23 October 2018 – More than 90 parliamentarians from over 70 countries have agreed on a forward-looking declaration that aims to foster understanding of, and consensus around, the urgency to address the current political discourse on sexual and reproductive health and rights. Jean-Jacques Flahaux (MR) and Petra de Sutter (Groen), members of the Belgian all-party parliamentary group, ‘Parliamentarians for the 2030 Agenda’, participated in the conference.
 Left to right: Dr. Shershah Syed, Sabien Lahaye-Battheu, Felipe Sere. Copyright: Sensoa Despite progress in safe deliveries, 830 women die every day due to pregnancy and delivery related complications and millions of women live with long lasting health problems as a result of them. Fistulas are one of the most serious delivery complications. Fistulas can lead to still births, incontinence, stigma, shame and social exclusion and in some cases the mother’s death. Approximately 2 million women live with the complication. Reasons enough to put the problem in the spotlight.
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