Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures: SDG3 and the constellation of care - CPD side event

World Health Day is WHO’s flagship campaign, drawing attention each year to a subject of major importance to global health. The 2025-26 theme is ‘Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures, focusing on improving maternal and newborn health. It builds on momentum from the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA), where governments resolved to accelerate progress on maternal, child and newborn mortality and improve survival and includes the launch of new global maternal mortality estimates.  

This year, World Health Day falls on the first day of the 58th Commission on Population and Development (CPD). The special theme of the session, “Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages” (Sustainable Development Goal 3), is closely related to Chapter VII on “Reproductive Rights and reproductive health” and Chapter VIII on “Health, Morbidity and Mortality” of the Programme of Action (PoA) with adopted by the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994. CPD’s annual session has not focused explicitly on health since 2011.  

Universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services is a human right and should be available to all people throughout their lives, as part of ensuring universal health coverage. There is a direct line between the ICPD Programme of Action and SDG3. Both these agendas are unfinished, and they cannot be met without sexual and reproductive health and rights.  

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