Introduction

	Putting People at the Centre
	From Words to Action
	Countries Report on Progress
	National Ownership and Culture
	Birth of a New Global Consensus
	Wide-ranging Impact
	Long Way to Go
	The Way Forward

From Words to Action

As recent country, regional and global reports and surveys make clear, the Cairo agreement has shaped policies and actions over the past ten years addressing a broad range of concerns related to population, reproductive health and gender equality.

At a series of regional conferences marking ten years since the ICPD, governments collectively have strongly reaffirmed their commitment to the Programme of Action, despite efforts by the United States to reopen issues resolved by consensus in Cairo. Many developing countries and countries in transition confirm their national ownership of the ICPD, and report that policies and programmes promoting reproductive health and gender equality are now indispensable parts of their development plans.

And at the Commission on Population and Development’s annual session in 2004, countries agreed that implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action makes “an essential contribution to the achievement of internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration”. (See Chapter 2 for more on the Millennium Development Goals and their connection to the ICPD.)

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