Key gains for Africa at family planning forum

Book of sexual education next to a notebook, conceptual image. [Getty Images]

The global push for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) has been around for at least seven decades. Africa still lags behind the rest of the world, however. There is need to intensify the pace of awareness and uptake of the benefits of SRHR education. There is also need to improve the legal and regulatory environment for SRHR, 70 years since bold public discourse on planned parenthood came in the open.

Small groups of bold women came together, in the 1950s, determined to sensitise communities and families around the world on sexual and reproductive health. They took humankind into spaces that had, hitherto, been considered taboo in many societies. Seven decades later, the conversation has spread to the four corners of the globe. It is addressing a wide slate of issues on SRHR, both through local and global initiatives. Yet a lot more remains to be done.