Irum Taqi, former Director of Global Policy at the Guttmacher Institute, emphasizes the cost-effectiveness of investing in SRHR and warns that Trump administration cuts to global health assistance threaten progress toward sustainable development and equality.
Guttmacher statement at the 58th Session of the UN Commission on Population and Development
Transcript: Our research consistently shows that investing in sexual and reproductive health care is both cost-effective and yields enormous returns in terms of social and economic development goals.
Prior to 2025, global health systems were already facing many challenges, including funding shortfalls and widespread inequalities in access to services between and within countries. The new Trump administration's abrupt cuts to global health assistance, paired with projected declines in other streams of global health foreign assistance, threaten to exacerbate these challenges.
Guttmacher urges member states gathered this week to reaffirm their commitments to protect sexual and reproductive health and rights, recognizing that building resilient health systems includes the provision of the full spectrum of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health interventions that are essential to sustainable development, equality and human rights.