Ilona Kickbusch, Director of the Global Health Programme, joins the new commission on sexual and reproductive health and rights formed by the Guttmacher Institute and the Lancet. The commission, co-chaired by Ann Starrs, President and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, and Dr. Alex Ezeh, Executive Director of the African Population Health Research Center, aims to develop an advanced agenda for key sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) priorities in the post-2015 world. Moreover, the commission will encourage the adoption of policies that will turn its vision into reality. The commission will focus not only on the core sexual and reproductive health and rights topics such as contraceptive use, sexually transmitted infections and maternal and newborn health, but will also focus on often-neglected components of SRHR such as safe abortion services, nondiscrimination in access to services and care, and the general need for high-quality and confidential services which are widely available. While the Sustainable Development Goals’ approach to sexual and reproductive health and rights is progressive, several core issues have been left out, often due to being seen as controversial. The commission aims to tackle precisely these topics, broadening the view of sexual and reproductive issues as part of the international development agenda.
The co-chair Ann Starrs says: “A new agenda for sexual and reproductive health and rights is needed that recognises the full scope of people's sexual and reproductive health needs, and enables all people to choose whether, when, and with whom to engage in sexual activity; to choose whether and when to have children; and to access the means to do so in good health.”
The 14 commissioners are distinguished experts from an array of public health related disciplines coming from all over the world, ensuring that the work of the commission will be of the highest quality. The commission begins its work in the early 2016 and is set to produce a final report in 2017 to the Lancet for publication.