Integrating Family Planning with Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: The Past as Prologue?

Abstract

In the year 2009, the fifteenth anniversary of the Interna tional Conference on Population and Development (ICPD + 15) was observed in an atmosphere in which key gov ernments were once more in a position to play the role in support of the goals of ICPD that many have wished for and that has been missing for years. This is a propi tious moment, therefore, to assess policies and programs and to draw lessons from them concerning what might be expected in the remaining years of the ICPD's 20-year Programme of Action. This commentary focuses on the links between sexual and reproductive health and rights and family planning. The past may be prologue, but what kind of prologue is it? What Kind of Past? What Kind of Prologue? The complex relationship between family planning (FP) and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and the troubled politics in which they are intertwined are central to understanding what past strategies and policies have accomplished, where they are now, and where they should or may go. Fifteen years is a sufficient period of time since the goals of ICPD were set forth in which to revisit the relationship between FP and SRHR and to reflect on why it has been and continues to be so complex and difficult. Viewed from one perspective, FP and SRHR are both part of the broad family of human relationships and social practices in the area of sex and reproduction. Yet as we know, family relationships can be cooperative and sup