And greater attention has to be paid to establish ing the legal rights and equality of women. Internationally, human rights goals must be given their proper importance in assistance programmes.

Poverty prevents both women and men from exercising their reproductive and sexual rights. The actions advocated in this report will have a powerful impact on poverty, but specific action is needed to increase women's access to credit and economic resources.

We must close the gap in education between boys and girls. In addition, men and boys should be educated and encouraged to treat women as equal partners in family, community, and national life. Sexual violence will not end while inequality exists between men and women.

Health services need to be reformed and expanded to meet the reproductive and sexual health needs of their clients. All the institutions of civil society must be involved in this reformation. Sexual and reproductive health can no longer be last on the list for funding if it is to reach all those who need it.

Enabling Rights

Population and development strategies will need to be revised to fulfill the new international consensus. The UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Basic Social Services for All is working on a set of indicators of progress in areas addressed by the recent global conferences. So are multilateral and bilateral assistance agencies.

Women's equality and equity need to be realized, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women must be adopted without reservations. Human rights activists, UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO, the UN Division for the Advancement of Women, and the human rights treaty bodies are beginning to draw up their own set of indicators to monitor progress in protecting human rights, particularly women's rights. Violations must be documented and redressed. Rights protections must be enforced.

Legal reforms, internationally and nationally, are needed to support women's rights, the rights to sexual and reproductive health, and quality health care. Programmes must be held account able for their performance and any transgres sions of their clients' rights.

People must be mobilized and educated to mon itor human rights issues in their communities. Organizations focused on human rights, women's empowerment, and health and reproductive rights need to continue to forge alliances to promote their shared concerns.

International assistance programmes need to ensure that the programmes they support advance human rights.

Towards Better Sexual
and Reproductive Health

The ICPD Programme of Action calls for the elimination of barriers to information and services for reproductive health by 2015.

Providing high-quality services is a goal that will demand improved staff training and super vision, and regular monitoring of their interac tions with their clients. Improving the scope and the quality of care will also mean addition al investments in both physical plant (water, electricity, supplies) and personnel. Managers should make every effort to provide good, com prehensive services to their clients in each of their clinics.

Some groups--the poor, women, rural dwellers, adolescents, indigenous peoples, the disabled, migrants, and refugees--are often under-served by, or left out of, programmes. Special efforts will need to be made to reach these groups.

Partnerships with civil society will be fundamen tal to success in designing and carrying out these programmes. Programmes can also benefit from qualitative research on the dynamics of social change. NGOs have become particularly impor tant in designing, researching, and testing new methods of service delivery, and have been a force urging the expansion of national programmes.

Finally, guidelines and standards of conduct for health systems need to incorporate a reproduc tive rights perspective. The World Health Organization is developing standards of repro ductive and sexual health care. On the front lines, staff members need training in the protection of clients' rights.

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