The Nairobi Summit on ICPD25: Accelerating the Promise

25 years ago, the world took a stand and recognised Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) as human rights. Today the world convenes again, this time in Nairobi, to honour the commitments made then, and to accelerate progress.

Today is the opening day of the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25, marking 25 years since the landmark International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action was adopted in Cairo. Back then, the conference placed SRHR at the heart of national and international development efforts, and now the international community is meeting again to mobilise political will and financial commitments to ensure the goals agreed to in 1994 will be achieved by 2030.

Marie Stopes International will be represented at the conference by 20 team members from around the world to ensure that neglected issues in the ICPD remain on the agenda to address the 25 million unsafe abortions which still occur each year.

Because every day, women and girls around the world seek an abortion but don't have access to safe services. Many women don't know where to turn for support, don't know what the law allows, or are too worried about the stigma associated with abortion to even ask for help. This lack of knowledge and fear of judgement is putting lives at risk. Almost half of all abortions globally are unsafe: an estimated 25 million each year. As a result, an estimated seven million women will face complications, and 22,800 will die. This cannot be ignored.

The vast majority of these deaths and injuries are preventable by increasing access to safe abortion services, alongside efforts to reduce unintended pregnancies by meeting the unmet need for modern contraception.

To contribute to the elimination of unsafe abortion and unmet need for modern contraception by 2030, we commit:

• To serve 100 million women through the providers we work with
• To scale up provision of safe abortion and post abortion care in the countries in which we work
• To work in partnership with governments to remove restrictions and increase access, choice and quality of contraception and safe abortion care.

Because we believe women's lives are worth saving.

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If you are at the summit in Nairobi, please join us at the concurrent session that we are co-hosting:
Ending unsafe abortion by 2030: How do we get there?

To see updates from the summit as they happen, follow us on twitter @MarieStopes.