Publication Date: 06/04/2004

Description: At the landmark International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994, 179 countries agreed on an historic Programme of Action to promote economic development and slow population growth worldwide. It rejected arbitrary targets and quotas, committing governments instead to invest in sexual and reproductive health education, care and services for individuals worldwide, especially women. The goal was universal access by 2015. The United States played a key role in generating the consensus on the Cairo Programme of Action, yet the current U.S. Administration is in active opposition to it. And worldwide investments have fallen far short of the 1994 commitment, even as the AIDS pandemic continues to spread.