Source: The Guardian 
The population milestone is a reminder that there is much work to do on sexual and reproductive health and HIV if we are to meet the millennium development goals by 2015.

The world's population reaching 7 billion on Monday is an occasion to take stock of how far humanity has come in promoting the right to the highest attainable standard of health. As a key strategy to accelerate progress, the international sexual and reproductive health and HIV communities are increasingly joining forces and reaching out to the most vulnerable and under-served populations.

It is critical that sound policies are in place to support comprehensive approaches, whether on providing women with family planning services, delivering sex education for young boys and girls, preventing child marriage, eliminating gender-based violence, managing sexually transmitted infections, ensuring access to condoms for dual protection, or providing antiretroviral treatment alongside cervical cancer screening.

The millennium development goals cannot be achieved without ensuring human rights and universal access to sexual and reproductive health and HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. These are joint goals that will contribute to – and cannot be achieved without – gender equality and empowerment of women.

Most new HIV infections are sexually transmitted or associated with pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. The risk of HIV transmission may also be further increased by other sexually transmitted infections. This means that efforts to improve the health of women and their children, including eliminating mother to child transmission of HIV, require a joint commitment.

Sexual and reproductive ill-health and HIV have the same root causes. These include economic inequality, limited access to appropriate information, gender inequality, harmful cultural norms and social marginalisation.

The interventions needed to address HIV and other sensitive sexual and reproductive health issues often face the same challenges: lack of trained staff and management skills, and shortages of supplies, equipment and facilities.

People in poor countries typically receive only piecemeal information and services – even though they may have urgent concerns regarding HIV and other sexual and reproductive health issues.

The opportunity to get better health for the money – which is ever more important in the current economic climate – lies in strengthening integrated services. Forging partnerships between the sexual and reproductive health and HIV communities, including with networks of people living with HIV, is essential to reap sustainable benefits.

By integrating services, we can improve their quality and accessibility, which means more people will use them. In turn, this improves health and behavioural outcomes, including condom use, and people's knowledge about HIV. Other benefits include reducing HIV-related stigma and discrimination, since addressing HIV will be part of normal core services within a facility.