The Second World Summit for Social Development
APA Joint Statement
5 November 2025
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APA delivered a joint CSO statement on the occasion of the The Second World Summit for Social Development in Doha, Qatar on 5 November, exercising our newly established ECOSOC status for the first time. The statement was delivered by Executive Director Alexandra Johns, under High Level Roundtable 2: Assessing progress and addressing gaps and challenges in the progress implemetation of the commitments of the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and its Programme of Action and giving momentum towards the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Excellencies, honourable delegates, fellow advocates,
I am pleased to deliver this statement on behalf of the Asia Pacific Foundation for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, along with MSI Reproductive Choices, the Women' s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR), Family Planning Australia and Youth Voices Count.
We are also a member of the Global South Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and Development Justice, and as such endeavour to strengthen the two-way linkage between the right to development, and SRHR and gender, as critical to achieving social development.
We congratulate you on the adoption of the Doha Declaration, which commits to build a more just, inclusive and sustainable world, and at the same time acknowledges the urgent need to address profound social challenges by addressing underlying structural causes.
As a core pillar of social protection and development justice, health is a critical driver behind the creation of a more equitable and just world, especially in the context of debt and economic crisis and the ongoing conflict in parts of the Asia Pacific region.
Delivering on the right to health and thus the right to development, requires ensuring that no one is pushed into poverty when paying out-of-pocket for essential health services or products including medicines. Yet, the latest regional estimates reveal that 326 million people are spending more than 10% of their household budget as out-of-pocket expenditure on health.
Excellencies, investment into people-centered Universal Health Coverage (UHC) must be prioritized, without conditions or exclusions. This includes access to comprehensive, quality, sexual and reproductive health services, including safe abortion, as well as information and sexuality education. All individuals, regardless of their socioeconomic status, have the right to the highest attainable standard of health and the fulfillment of their bodily autonomy.
30 years after the first World Social Summit, we express our deep concern that civic space is being closed, which runs contrary to the spirit of the Copenhagen Declaration. Civil society is indispensable to the achievement of sustainable development, through centering the needs and rights of those who are most marginalized such as women, young people and adolescents, migrant workers, and persons with disabilities, amongst others; enabling them to live lives of dignity founded on human rights.
We close by urging policy coherence with the International Conference on Population and Development Programme for Action (ICPD PoA), and the Beijing Platform for Action, which also advance the achievement of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.
Thank you
