Universal Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Asia: a Regional Profile

In 2016, the Asia-Pacific region is home to approximately 4.3 billion people, equivalent to approximately 60 percent of the world population.1 It is a very significant region to focus on as it includes a large number of developing countries with poor development and health indicators. As we reached the end of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) period in 2015 and looked ahead to the onset of a brand-new set of goals that the world had committed to achieve in the 2030 Agenda, it is crucial to acknowledge that we have our work cut out for us. The Global South, especially the Asia-Pacific region, continues to show very poor indicators related to poverty, employment, education, and health. While economic growth remained steady in Asia and the Pacific, it has been uneven across the region and within countries, where income inequalities continue to increase especially in developing countries. While the number of people living in this region who are poor (i.e., living on less than US$1.25 a day) has fallen, the world’s poor remain overwhelmingly concentrated in these parts of the world where many people continue to be amongst the poorest of the poor, with women and girls constituting the majority.