7TH APCSRHR


GENERAL BACKGROUND OF THE 7TH APCSRHR

The  7th Asia Pacific Conference on Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights (APCSRHR) will be held on January 21-24, 2014 at the Philippine International Convention Center in Manila, Philippines.

The APCSRHR is a civil society-led regional forum for inclusive participatory dialogue leading to sexual and reproductive health and rights for all. This gathering was conceptualized during the ICPD + 5 country and NGO review in The Hague in 1999. A number of Asia-Pacific delegates noted that their voices and issues were not sufficiently heard in that global gathering and they decided that they would convene their own conference to bring together civil society organizations and their development partners to share policies, programs and experiences in implementing the ICPD-Program of Action (POA).
The first conference was convened in Manila in 2001 by the Philippine NGO Council on Population, Health and Welfare, Inc.  Subsequent conferences with varying SRHR themes were held in Bangkok (2003), Kuala Lumpur (2005), Hyderabad (2007), Beijing (2009), and in Yogyakarta (2011).  The foregoing Asia-Pacific conferences were organized by country and regional civil society organizations in partnership with development agencies, national and local government units.  International and local steering committees were formed to manage these conferences.
During the 6th APCSRHR in Yogyakarta, the civil society organizations and their partners decided that the next conference would be held in Manila again with the theme entitled Examining achievements, good practices and challenges; Towards a strategic positioning of sexual & reproductive health & rights for all. The choice of this theme is timely because 2014 is the ICPD”s 20th year after Cairo and the year before the reckoning of the MDG achievements.
The  7th APCSRHR would  provide an opportunity for the participants to examine the region’s performance,   good practices for diverse population segments (adolescents and youth, women of reproductive age, men, and the elderly) the roles and accountability of  different stakeholders as well as lessons learned, issues and challenges in realizing the ICPD-POA and in attaining SRHR-related MDGs.   This gathering would also generate new paradigms, innovative ideas and strategies that would address emerging SRHR issues and challenges beyond 2015.
Prior to the main conference, the 7th APCSRHR will  hold a youth-led whole-day forum on January 21, 2014 in recognition of the vital roles that young people play  in policy and program development that are geared towards the fulfilment of their reproductive health and rights.
The main conference will be on January 22-24, 2014 and it will have four major tracks.
  • Track 1: Overview of the SRHR performance including good practices, lessons learned,   challenges and future directions (beyond 2015)  for diverse groups and social settings in addressing  the ICPD-POA and in meeting the MDGs and other related commitments;
  • Track 2: Good SRHR practices in  formal and informal health systems (focus on the six pillars—governance, health facilities, health financing, human resources, regulations and health information)  issues and challenges;
  • Track 3: Sexual and reproductive rights in ‘ordinary’  or non-crisis settings and during humanitarian response: Good practices, issues and challenges
  • Track 4: Emerging and re-emerging issues, challenges and prospects beyond 2015.
Track 1 will have an opening plenary session in the morning on the overall Asia-Pacific’s  SRHR performance and future directions in relation to the ICPD-POA and MDGs from the perspectives of the civil society, development partner and the youth.   The first plenary session will be followed by four sub-regional plenary sessions in the afternoon to highlight the SRHR performance and future direction in East and Central Asia, Pacific and Oceania, South Asia, and in Southeast Asia.
Tracks 2 to 4 have three plenary and 40 parallel sessions.


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