Dear Colleagues,

The Technical Division has been working in collaboration with the UN, sister Agencies and several Country Offices to define standards to measure women's decision making and legislation on SRHR as part of our contribution to the SDG 5 - Gender Equality, and more specifically its target 5.6: Achieving Universal Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Reproductive Rights. 

SDG Indicators 5.6.1 and 5.6.2., for which UNFPA is custodian, measure the legal and regulatory frameworks for SRHR, as well as women’s reproductive autonomy. Together they provide a comprehensive picture of SRHR, as they allow us to see whether a country has a positive enabling legal and normative frameworks and whether these provisions go the last mile and effectively empower all women and girls. 

The data and research attached provide countries with an important evidence-based argument to advocate for Rights and Choices for All, and we highlight the most important below:

Country Offices can use the findings to see where laws are strong; in these cases, we might need to focus on implementation. In countries where laws are absent or legal restrictions exist - such as requirements for third party consent – the data can provide you with insights on where advocacy and policy action is required for repealing laws that interfere with full and equal access.

Women’s Decision Making on SRHR (SDG 5.6.1): to measure this indicator, data have been collected since 2018, with 57 countries reporting as of today. The key finding of this research is that, based on the available data, only 55% of women are able to make SRHR decisions.

Country Offices can use the global, regional, and national data to analyze women’s decision making on health care, use of contraceptives, and ability to say no to sex (disaggregated by geographic location, age, level of education, household wealth, and place of residence).

To complement this picture, we have conducted an action-oriented research to better understand what determines’ women’s decision making, how countries have successfully supported women’s reproductive autonomy, and the implications for our work. The findings indicate what determines women's ability to decide (knowledge, position of the husband in the decision-making process, communication between partners/spouses, gender norms, access/affordability/acceptability to health services among others). The issue brief includes important insights along with interventions with positive impact, who is being left behind and key recommendations going forward.

We want to warmly thank all the regional and country offices for actively collaborating with their National Statistical Offices to include SDG 5.6.1 questions in national surveys, and ensuring such a high reporting number of countries for SDG 5.6.2. This has been the foundation for the work and we hope the findings will help you advance your work and policy dialogue. A special note of thanks to the COs in Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal and Uganda for supporting the action-oriented research. 

At the global level, the data and findings are being disseminated through regular engagements and a number of debates and events ranging from the UN Statistical Commission, Generational Equality Forum and the HLPF. At country and regional levels, there may be several opportunities to disseminate these data and research to inform your work and of your partners and governments. A set of social media messages and website links will soon be available for your further dissemination.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to get in touch with Emilie Filmer-Wilson (Gender & Human Rights Branch/TD: filmer-wilson@unfpa.org) and Mengjia Liang (Population and Development Branch/TD: liang@unfpa.org). 

Thank you and kind regards, Benoit