The lightning session will feature stimulating discussions around the latest innovations to identify the issues still responsible for disadvantaging millions worldwide. At the same time in the Pamoja Zone, join a Community Conversation on Sexual violence in conflict (09:00) and Menstruation Experiences (09:45) in the Community Corner.

Francophone countries in West and Central Africa have the highest rates of maternal mortality and lowest rates of contraceptive prevalence in the world. Underfunding and lack of political will at the national and international level enable the numerous barriers the region faces to implement the ICPD Programme of Action and achieve Agenda 2030. This session will take stock of progress in the region and outstanding challenges related to the full realization of SRHR, with a focus on the implementation of the Maputo Protocol in Francophone Africa. It will bring together researchers, service providers, decision-makers, lawyers and CSO activists, and showcase best practices for preventing and managing unintended pregnancies. Participants will also highlight actions needed to inspire change at the normative, operational and partnership levels.This session will be held in French and is convened by Médecins du Monde France, Le Planning Familial, Association des Femmes Juristes du Burkina Faso and Equipop.

Amid growing awareness of how patriarchal control of adolescent girls’ sexuality is a key driver of child marriage, still too few programmes aiming to end child marriage actually address this link in their work. The issue is considered taboo, and thus worked around or completely ignored. Unless we work to address the root causes of child marriage, this harmful practice will persist and prevent us from achieving the aims of the ICPD Programme of Action, reaching the SDGs, and realizing gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights. This session will showcase new research and the work and lessons learned of organizations from regions with high rates of this harmful practice that are working to transformnorms around gender and sexuality to advance girls’ rights and freedom.It will highlight findings from two new reports on child marriage and showcase success stories, challenges, and demands for policy-makers and donors to support adolescent girls’ rights. The event is organized by the CEFM and Sexuality Programs Working Group, comprising 12 organisations: American Jewish World Service (AJWS), CARE, CREA, Global Fund for Women, Girls Not Brides: The Globala Partnership to End Child Marriage, GreeneWorks, International Center for Research, on Women (ICRW), International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), Nirantar Trust, Plan International, Population Council and Promundo-US.

Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services are often overlooked and underfunded in emergencies.Yet in an increasingly unstable world, there is an urgent need to invest in reaching women and adolescent girls in humanitarian settings. In this session, panelists will discuss what has been learned from delivering high-quality SRH services to populations in the most difficult of environments – highlighting that the job can be done with sufficient preparation, coordination, and funding. This session is convened by Women Deliver; FP2020; IAWG.

Meaningful youth participation is foundational to success in implementing the ICPD Programme of Action and achieving the 2030 Agenda. This session will convey examples of the power and pitfalls of youth participation and share lessons learned. Using the Europe and Central Asia ICPD regional review process as an example,an inter-generational group of stakeholders and decision-makers will share their experiences, exchange best practices and suggest possible solutions to pressing challenges. It will be an opportunity for participants to discuss methods tof increase accountability through youth participation. This session will be convened by several youth-led networks in the Europe and Central Asia region.

The rights, voices and choices of girls and young women are —and must remain — at the very center of realizing the ICPD Programme of Action. Without taking girls into account, in programme design as well as in programme leadership, both the Programme of Action and Agenda 2030 are in peril. This panel discussion will highlight successful programmes and interventions to advance the ICPD agenda through approaches created with and for girls, taking a cross-cutting thematic approach to different priority areas within the SRHR agenda. Participants can expect to leave equipped with lessons and recommendations to meaningfully involve young women and girls in programme design and leadership that can be replicated in their own contexts and countries. This session will be convened by Girl Determined (Myanmar) Hacey Health Initiative (Nigeria), NGO Atina (Serbia) and Roots of Health (Philippines).

The WHO Safe abortion, technical and policy guidance for health systems defines the international standards for the provision of safe abortion services globally. This panel will present regional progress around the achievements towards these standards. This panel will focus on why it is critical to make safe abortion universally accessible if we want to achieve zero preventable maternal deaths. Panellists will argue that motherhood must be voluntary, which means safe abortion should be treated as a legitimate form of healthcare, available on request from public health services, in line with WHO best practice guidelines. The panel will review the evidence on unintended and unwanted pregnancy globally. We will show that 25 years on, it is clear that increases in the use of contraception and provision of post-abortion care alone, without make abortions safe and legal, have not and will not prevent unwanted pregnancies or complications and deaths from unsafe abortion. The session will focus on how countries must fulfil ICPD's commitments on women's health and rights through universal access to safe abortion. The panel is convened by the International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion, with Global Doctors for Choice, Young Activist Network for Abortion Advocacy, Asian-Pacific Resources and Research Centre for Women, Consorcio Latinoamericano contra el Aborto Inseguro (CLACAI), Ipas Africa Alliance, Groupe Tawhida Ben Cheikh Tunisia, and La Mesa por la Vida y la Salud de las Mujeres Colombia.

Despite recent strong economic growth, several countries in the Sahel have not seen a commensurate increase in per capita income nor in equality between men and women. Fertility remains the highest in the world, and the pace of the demographic transition in the region has been slow. There is strong evidence that empowering women and youth is a main catalyst to trigger a “demographic dividend,” which would greatly benefit these countries. This session will share best practices and innovative approaches to supporting women’s and girls’ empowerment and men’s contributions to gender equality from the Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) initiative.This session is convened by CREFAT-CREG University of Thiès Senegal and Promundo.