The World Health Organization has warned that decades of progress in sexual and reproductive health and rights could be weakened by declining development assistance, pressure on health systems and political challenges to established services.
WHO pointed to major advances in cervical cancer prevention, maternal health, infertility data and measurement of violence against women. It said a postpartum haemorrhage response bundle tested in a trial involving more than 200,000 women reduced severe bleeding, emergency surgery or death by roughly 60 per cent once put into practice.
The organization warned that gains in maternal survival are increasingly vulnerable, particularly in fragile humanitarian settings, while sexual and reproductive health is not always explicitly reflected in emerging multilateral reform structures.
WHO argued for broader and more sustainable financing, including domestic budget allocations and regional risk pooling, to protect services from dependence on a small group of bilateral donors and to preserve reproductive health as an integral part of primary health care and universal health coverage.
