Nearly 20 years ago, 179 countries came together and made a commitment to provide sexual and reproductive health care, including family planning, to their people. The consensus reached at the International Conference on Population and Development remains the guiding principle for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

By Kylé Pienaar as published by our top partner allAfrica

Wednesday, the UNFPA released its newest report, By Choice, Not By Chance, which calls for a rights-based approach to ensuring all women and girls have access to family planning. Babatunde Osotimehin, the UNFPA's executive director, spoke to allAfrica about the report's findings and about how he sees access to family planning as a liberating force for women and girls.

What are the most important findings or ideas in this new report?

The key message is that we have been able to demonstrate that when family planning is provided on a rights-based approach it makes a difference to the lives of women and girls around the world. So it's not just about child spacing, it's about the holistic development of their lives.

Read the full story here.