Advancing the ICPD Agenda on sexual and reproductive health and rights in Africa: A call for action.

On September 5 to 13, 1994, the United Nations coordinated an international conference on population and development, which led to a global rethinking on population activities and its effects on global development 1 . Tagged the “International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD)”, its major outcome was the adoption by 179 governments around the world of a groundbreaking Program of Action (PoA) for repositioning women’s reproductive health and rights as a priority in national and global development efforts 2 . Since then, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) has featured prominently in many international conferences related to social development as well as in landmark global agreements such as the Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals.