The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD, Cairo, 1994) was a watershed event that forged an international consensus on population and development. It shed new light on the linkages between reproductive health and rights and other aspects of development.At the conference, 179 governments, including China, endorsed a 20-year Programme of Action which focused on individuals’ needs and rights rather than on achieving demographic targets.Concrete goals include providing universal education; reducing infant,child and maternal mortality;and ensuring universal access by 2015 to reproductive health care,including family planning, assisted childbirth, and preventionof sexually transmitted infections and HIV.