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The 2021 State of World Population report, titled , marks the first time a United Nations report focuses on the power and agency of individuals to make choices about their bodies without fear, violence or coercion. The report examines data on women’s decision-making power and on laws supportive of sexual and reproductive health and rights. Tragically, only 55 per cent of women have bodily autonomy, according to measurements of their ablity to make their own decisions on issues relating to health care, contraception and whether to have sex. The report also highlights the legal, economic and social barriers to securing bodily autonomy for all. Here are and why we must abandon these misconceptions once and for all

Around the world, only 55% of girls and women are able to make their own decisions about their bodily autonomy. But, what exactly is bodily autonomy and why is it so important? Watch this video to find out and learn more at 

Bodily autonomy means that we have the power and agency to make choices over our bodies and futures, without violence or coercion. This edition of the , highlights why bodily autonomy is a universal right that must be upheld. The report reveals how serious many of the shortfalls in bodily autonomy are; many have worsened under the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic. Right now, for instance, record numbers of women and girls are at risk of gender-based violence and harmful practices such as early marriage.

In 2020, trained community midwives in villages and remote rural areas and established 170 home clinics by covering the costs of renovation, equipment like ultrasound machines, medicines and reproductive health supplies. A solar suitcase provides lighting, mobile phone charging and electronic fetal monitoring. Since opening her home clinic more than a year ago in the economically depressed neighborhood of Sawan, Rahma has helped more than 120 women. In addition to midwifery, she provides check-ups, family planning, minor surgery and first aid.   

Ambovombe is a landlocked district in southern Madagascar, where only about half of health facilities are accessible year-round because of poor roads and challenging terrain. And even if one could get there, the cost of transportation is too high, resulting in 61 percent of births taking place outside of a health facility. When COVID-19 struck, even more patients stopped going to health centres. For five months, two mobile clinics covered more than 10,000 kilometers to serve 59 remote localities in seven districts. 

Millions of women and girls are denied their right to have a say in sexual matters, to say yes to contraception and to make their own healthcare choices. This world must become one where every woman and girls’ body is truly her own. , Goodwill Ambassador, speaks out to achieve this world  — from educating young people about their bodies and rights, to reforming policies that do not adequately prevent or address gender-based violence, to supporting communities to adopt more gender-equitable practices.

Sometimes, that support comes from changing people's minds. Flavia Buitrón belongs to an organization of Quechua women in Peru that raises awareness of indigenous women's issues. The pandemic has laid bare many painful truths, not least how tough and isolating the road is when we go through difficult times alone. We’ve seen how working in solidarity is the way to reach where we are heading faster. This International Women’s Day, on 8 March, we celebrate the women supporting other women, even when their own burdens are great and growing. When women uplift other women, we all rise.

Saúde das Manas (“Sisters’ Health”) project, a partnership, aims is to strengthen the quality of reproductive health care in Brazil. The local health system provides services in COVID-19 times by setting up telemedicine offices at seven health-care clinics (called basic health units in Brazil). The clinics will provide online consultations with specialists in gynaecology and obstetrics. Before the telemedicine offices open, patients who require a more specialized consultation travel more than 100 kilometres away, mostly by boat.

Reformed cutters protect the next generation from female genital mutilation in Kenya

February is a busy month for retailers marketing the promise of “happily ever after” to girls around the world. But for tens of millions of girls, this is just a fairy tale. Their girlhoods are ending,not with storybook romance but with harmful rites of passage such as child marriage and female genital mutilation – practices believed to be increasing as the COVID-19 pandemic forces girls out of school and drags their families into poverty. calls on leaders, community members and parents to take decisive action against female genital mutilation and early marriage.