The pandemic cost the Philippines four years’ worth of effort in meeting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are linked to sexual and reproductive health rights and services (SRHRS) as well as population and development (POPDEV).
Executive director of the Commission on Population and Development (POPCOM) Undersecretary Juan Antonio Perez III said remarkable strides were achieved in SRHRS and POPDEV before the country was affected by Covid-19.
Due to the global health crisis, Perez said the country’s investments for SRHRS and POPDEV were significantly affected, causing the country to regress in its efforts to meet the SDGs linked to these efforts.
“POPDEV work clearly suffered a setback in the last two years in terms of reducing poverty, which currently grips 23 percent of the Philippine population, and has rolled back the gains of the first four years of implementing the medium-term plan and its related SDG progress,” Perez said at the 55th session of the United Nations’ Commission on Population and Development.
“Excess mortality due to Covid-19 and the relative weakness of the health system fighting on two fronts reached a peak in 2021, when the Civil Registration System noted an unprecedented 26 percent rise in mortalities,” he added.
However, Perez said the full execution of SRHRS as well as population-related policies during the pandemic, family planning use among Filipino women was sustained.
The Department of Health’s Field Health Services Information System data showed that women using family planning methods reached 8 million by the end of 2020 from 7.6 million users in 2019.
With this, Perez suggested to other countries the need to include SRHRS as part of their response to the health and economic crises, and not dilute its importance, as public health systems as well as governments seek to reduce the pandemic’s impact.
With regard to adolescents as vulnerable members of society, whose SRHRS aspects were severely compromised during the pandemic, Perez said quality educational systems mattered.
These include comprehensive sexuality education modules integrated at appropriate levels, which will be crucial “to win back losses young people have suffered in this area for the past two years.”
Perez also said families, women and couples have been promised a share in economic development for the last three decades through three global-binding agendas.
These are the International Conference on Population and Development Program of Action, or the ICPD POA, the Millennium Development Goals, and the SDGs.
“For countries in a demographic transition like the Philippines, they must not lose sight of what has brought them to their current situation: a cohesive and effective family planning program based on efficient local health systems, improved adolescent health and development by addressing comprehensively high adolescent birth rates, and increased attention to family development that leads to the reduction of unmet needs not only in reproductive health, but also in nutrition, household incomes, education and housing,” Perez said.###