What About Well-Being? Measuring What We Really Care About in Sexual and Reproductive Health

The well-being of individuals and communities is increasingly recognized as a core objective of economic and global development policies and programs. However, existing measures of well-being neglect sexual and reproductive experiences, which are core dimensions of people's lives. While there has been increasing attention to the concept of sexual well-being, measures of sexual and reproductive health are predominantly deficit-based and ignore whether people are having positive experiences. To consider the development of a measure of sexual and reproductive well-being, a multidisciplinary and geographically diverse group of experts was convened. Outcomes of this meeting included endorsement of a draft definition of sexual and reproductive well-being, demonstrated enthusiasm and commitment to the development of a measure capturing this construct, and delineation of core considerations in the measure development process. These included considering the diversity of normative and political contexts around sexuality and reproduction, and the critical nature of meaningful community engagement when developing this measure. A pathway for measuring development was defined, with the goal of creating a concise measure assessing people's holistic experiences of sexuality and reproduction that can draw attention to and monitor the extent to which people are having the sexual and reproductive lives they wish to have.