Getting 179 governments to agree on something is never easy.

But that’s exactly what happened at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo. After four years of comprehensive consultations and heated negotiations leading up to the Conference, the result was a Programme of Action that, for the first time, placed individual dignity and human rights firmly at the heart of human development.

It did so by reconciling diverse views on population and development, gender equality, sexual and reproductive health, and sustainable development; acknowledging rights and choices for all; and recognising that these interlinked pillars are key to shaping and implementing policies that will empower individuals and, by extension, entire societies and nations.

Truly revolutionary at the time, ICPD remains all the more urgent and relevant a quarter-century later in this era of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals.

This video - created for the 2018 Mid-Term Review of the Asian Ministerial Declaration on Population and Development -  demonstrates why.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft2L0gPeaBg&t=29s