The foundations of the ICPD began at the International Conference on Human Rights held in Tehran, Iran. The conference adopted the Proclamation of Tehran, which affirmed for the first time in a global agreement, the basic right of parents, “to determine freely and responsibly the number and the spacing of their children.” This later became a cornerstone of the ICPD Programme of Action.

The groundwork for the ICPD was furthered by the World Population Plan of Action (WPPA), which was adopted at the 1974 World Conference on Population in Bucharest, Romania. The WPPA highlighted common concerns over emerging population issues and contains recommendations and guidelines aimed at "a better quality of life and rapid socio-economic development" for all people.

The ICPD, held in Cairo, Egypt, was the largest intergovernmental conference on population and development ever held. It articulated a bold new vision about the relationships between population, development and individual well-being – and, momentously, marked the first time world leaders agreed to invest in people and not demographic targets. This bold vision was articulated in a 20-year Programme of Action (PoA).

The Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, resulted in the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action, which assisted in strengthening the 'rights' component of the ICPD. The Declaration sets strategic objectives and actions for the advancement of women and the achievement of gender equality.

The mandate of the ICPD+5, was to assess progress to date in implementing the PoA and to articulate strategies for moving forward. The ICPD+5 laid out crucial steps needed to better address maternal mortality and morbidity, including reducing the impacts of unsafe abortions and the HIV/AIDS pandemic on women and young people. The ICPD+5 review came in the same year the world population surpassed 6 billion, which generated considerable interest in population issues.

At the Millennium Development Summit held in New York, world leaders committed their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty, which were formulated in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a series of time-bound targets with an endpoint of 2015. These goals added strength to achieve the ICPD PoA.

Building partnerships with parliamentarians was vital to implementing the ICPD PoA, since parliamentarians are a crucial bridge between people and their governments and the key to enacting and improving laws critical to achieving the ICPD goals. Six International Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation (IPCI) of the ICPD PoA have been held: Canada (2002), France (2004), Thailand (2006), Ethiopia (2009), Turkey (2012) and Sweden (2014).

The 10th Anniversary of the ICPD, in 2004, marked the mid-point of its 20-year PoA. This offered an opportunity to reflect on progress to date and take stock of challenges ahead. Towards this end, UNFPA conducted an in-depth, country-by-country analysis of achievements, constraints, lessons learned and viable approaches to fully implement the ICPD PoA.

The ICPD at 15 process focused primarily on country and regional implementation. It included a number of technical meetings and consultations that identified gaps in realizing the ICPD vision. The information and recommendations emerging from all of the review meetings are distilled in the publication ICPD at 15: Looking Back, Moving Forward.

In 2011, UNFPA hosted a global civil society stakeholder meeting in Istanbul. It also held regional civil society and youth consultations in 2012, to coordinate efforts and provide input on how to link the ICPD Beyond 2014 process to the UN Development Agenda Beyond 2015. The five 2012 regional conferences were held in: Ghana, Jamaica, Turkey, Malaysia, and Uruguay.

Over 650 young people and representatives from governments, the United Nations and the private sector, representing almost every country on the globe, came together to make recommendations that would place youth priorities at the heart of future development policy. The youth forum was part of the formal UN process to review progress, gaps and challenges in achieving the objectives of the ICPD PoA.

As part of the ICPD review process, five regional conferences were convened in 2013 to assess the progress made so far and the challenges and gaps faced in the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action. The regional conferences were held in Egypt (Arab States), Switzerland (Europe & Central Asia), Uruguay (Latin America & the Caribbean), Thailand (Asia & the Pacific), and Ethiopia (Africa).

The ICPD International Conference on Human Rights, held in the Netherlands, was part of the UN mandated review of the 1994 ICPD PoA. The participants identified opportunities to link human rights commitments with implementation of the PoA, with a particular emphasis on strengthening sexual and reproductive health and rights and their intersection with gender equality.

During this expert meeting to review the specific challenges for women's health beyond 2014, participants agreed on the major gaps in implementing the PoA, such as the poor quality of many sexual and reproductive health services. This meeting was part of the formal UN process to review progress, gaps and challenges in achieving the objectives of the ICPD PoA.

The meeting was convened to discuss the framework for monitoring progress of the ICPD agenda beyond 2014, at national, regional and global levels. The deliberations were part of a wider consultation process that yielded Annex IV of the Framework of Actions for the Follow-up to the PoA (the global review report). The outcome included revised objectives and sub-objectives.

The 2014 session of the Commission on Population and Development opened with calls to redouble efforts to promote development through strengthened reproductive health and human rights. The session was called to review progress made since the 1994 adoption of the ICPD PoA in Cairo and cast a spotlight on the many challenges that remain.

On 22 September 2014, world leaders gathered in New York for a United Nations General Assembly special session (UNGASS) to discuss the progress and achievements of the ICPD goals set in Cairo in 1994. Overall, participants agreed that population concerns must be at the core of the post-2015 development agenda and cited the need for universal access to basic services, such as health care and education.

The 193 Member States of the UN unanimously adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 goals aiming to transform the world over the next 15 years. These goals are designed to eliminate poverty, discrimination, abuse and preventable deaths, address environmental destruction, and usher in an era of development for all people, everywhere. The new development agenda will further aid in reaching the ICPD goals.

During the second Global Conference on Population, held in Mexico City, member states adopted recommendations to further the implementation of the WPPA. The recommendations were produced during four expert group meetings held in 1983: fertility and family (New Delhi); population distribution, migration and development (Hammamet); population, resources, environment and development (Geneva); and mortality and health policy (Rome).