Why Global Goals Matter: The Experience of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the MDGs

This article begins by providing some context for the selection of targets and indicators chosen to measure Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, “improvement in maternal health,” considering why the broad vision of sexual and reproductive health and (reproductive) rights set out at international conferences in the 1990s was reduced to maternal health in the MDGs in 2001. We consider the intended and unintended consequences to the sexual and reproductive health and rights agenda based on the choices made with respect to the selection of the targets and indicators under MDG 5, and their conversion into national planning tools. Finally, we set out criteria for the selection of goals, targets, and indicators, which we believe should be applied to the post-2015 global development agenda-setting process.

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