Women Deliver, an international conference dedicated to women and girls, was held from May 16 to 19 in Copenhagen. More than 5,700 change makers—including politicians, lawyers, journalists, researchers, entrepreneurs, civil society actors, and young people—were in attendance to advance the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls by 2030.
While the Millennium Development Goals have led to significant progress for developing countries, Katja Iversen, CEO of Women Deliver, pointed out that although maternal mortality fell by 45% worldwide between 1990 and 2015, this decline has now stalled. For many women and girls around the world, access to their sexual and reproductive rights and health is far from a reality. Sexual and reproductive health and rights were therefore at the heart of many plenary and parallel sessions, with an emphasis on the importance of quality sexuality education, particularly for young people. It is also worth noting that, for the first time at this conference, safe and legal abortion was the subject of a plenary session.
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This edition was used as an opportunity to officially launch the "Deliver for Good" campaign. Encouraging all actors of change to mobilize in favor of women and girls, this cross-cutting campaign aims to ensure that gender is taken into account and inequalities are reduced in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Equipop welcomes the presence of many young people at this conference: a sign of definite interest in this important part of the world's population, they were often represented on the panels. However, we regret the low representation of French-speaking West Africa. While the plenary sessions were translated into French, only a few parallel sessions were in French, preventing French speakers from fully benefiting from the richness of the discussions.
