In 1989, the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme recommended that 11 July be observed by the international community as World Population Day, a day to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues.

This year's World Population Day calls for global attention to the unfinished business of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development. Twenty-five years have passed since that landmark conference, where 179 governments including Nepal recognized that reproductive health and gender equality are essential for achieving sustainable development. 

In November, UNFPA, together with the governments of Kenya and Denmark, will be convening a high-level conference in Nairobi to accelerate efforts to achieve these unmet goals. On World Population Day, advocates from around the world are calling on leaders, policymakers, grassroots organizers, institutions and others to help make reproductive health and rights a reality for all. 

In Nepal, UNFPA is collaborating with the Ministry of Health and Population, provincial governments, civil society, development partners and young people to celebrate this year's World Population Day in order to celebrate the progress Nepal has made since the ICPD Programme of Action was adopted 25 years and shed light on the unfinished business of ICPD in the country. The national theme is: 'आइसिपिडीको पच्चीस वर्षे यात्रा : जनङ्ख्या र विकासमा प्रतिबद्धता'