The Future Can't Wait

Thirty years after the landmark International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), which asserted that sustainable development depends on every individual's right to make choices about their body, life and future, ‘The Future Can't Wait’ presents a road map for achieving this bold vision in a changing world. 

The report summarizes the findings of the global stocktaking of progress led by the United Nations Economic Commissions and UNFPA in Africa, the Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Central Asia and North America, and Latin America and the Caribbean. It highlights key advances in health and choices, ongoing challenges, and opportunities to ensure rights and choices across the life course and in the context of global megatrends. The report also outlines the ICPD30 regional reviews, global dialogues and think pieces that inform the identified priorities for all countries to build a better, sustainable future. It emphasizes that the global community's commitment and broad-based partnerships among governments, civil society, young people and the private sector are essential for realizing people-centred development.

‘The Future Can't Wait’ outlines six priorities for action, to guide efforts to realize a people-centred future for every generation. 

1. Scale up investment in individual choices and capabilities, including through sexual and reproductive healthcare, to accelerate social and economic development while avoiding demographic engineering based on targets such as fertility rates. 
2. Strengthen population data systems to close gaps and meet new needs created by intersecting megatrends. 
3. Aim for universal sexual and reproductive health as a matter of rights and a pathway to more robust, inclusive and resilient development. 
4. Develop gender-responsive climate proofing that protects the lives and prospects of all members of society. 
5. End gender-based violence so that all women and girls are safe and free to pursue better lives, societies are more peaceful and economies are more productive. 
6. Leverage technology for inclusive development gains.