On May 30^th the UNHigh Level Panel of Eminent Persons submitted to the UN Secretary General the final report on Post-2015 Development Agenda entitled “A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies through Sustainable Development”. The launch event and meeting with various stakeholders, including the civil society, was held in New York on May 31^st.

This report is the culmination of the ongoing for several months consultations of the High Level Panel members with various stakeholders, including the civil society, through various channels: online consultations, submission of statements, four in person High Level Panel meetings. It brings a new perspective on the future development and cooperation. The universal development agenda in this report builds on the Millennium Development Goals and recognizes 11 universal goals with targets which will complete the unfinished business of the MDGs.

The Goal 4 “Ensure Healthy Lives” includes strong reference to SRHR which is a critical priority in its own right – “Universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) is an essential component of a healthy society” (page 39). The report states that full realization of both sexual and reproductive health, and sexual and reproductive rights, requires universal access to comprehensive, rights-based sexual and reproductive health services, as well as is critical for the empowerment of young people. However, abortion is mentioned once in the context of unplanned pregnancies which are a consequence of “222 million women in the world who want to prevent pregnancy but are not using effective, modern methods of contraception. This results in 80 million unplanned pregnancies, 30 million unplanned births and 20 million unsafe abortions every year” (page 39).

Goal 2 “Empower Girls and Women and achieve gender equality” clearly states the importance of gender equality in all aspects of life and the necessity of its integration across all goals.

Moving forward, this report is a big step in the Post-2015 process and there is now time to look to the Open Working Group and other parts of this process which will be able to build on this report and also ensure prioritizing SRHR issues as well human-rights based approach to population.

More: www.post2015hlp.org